I went out for a walk on my first afternoon in Pittsburgh. It was a lovely warm day. As I crossed the bridge over the Monongehala River, a formation of big helicopters flew overhead, low and slow. This picture is from them coming back the other way.

I assumed they were either practicing for or doing a football-related flyover. Three Black Hawks and a Chinook, I believe. Which is a pretty cool and exciting thing, actually, if you’re in the stadium and you’re expecting it.

But when you’re not expecting it, it’s a powerful sight.

As we gawked, the lady who happened to be next to me wondered aloud (addressing her husband, not me) what was up. Snarkily, I said “ICE raid?” She looked at me with genuine horror. I felt bad, and said something hopefully comforting about football.

She said, “Well, I don’t know, that’s just a little too low for me. I think it’s intimidating.”

Amen, sister.

We all walked on, and the choppers made several more passes. By the final one, the scariness had passed and it was just cool to see such amazing machines. Hmmm, maybe we need to be aware of allowing some things to become normalized.