Some Things I Noticed

Saturday evening I went to a fish fry and dance west of town at the Prosperity Grange. The grange hall was next door to the Griffin Fire District fire station which sported a yellow flag. Just below the flag was the color coded terrorist threat level chart explaining that the yellow flag indicated a significant risk of terrorist attack on the community. West of Olympia. Not quite the boondocks but, unless al-Qaeda is specifically going after exurban crossroads, the threat notice seemed over the top.

Sunday riding my bike past the National Guard armory near my place, I came across what looked like a company from the 81st Brigade of the Washington National Guard shipping out for Iraq. The unit has been on notice for deployment since early this year. On this day, the soldiers were in formation with lots of civilians standing by. An Army bus was waiting at the curb and each soldier was holding a large envelope. It sure had the look of a company level movement. I believe these soldiers are making their second deployment.