Lights in the sky

My town is on the fly-way for all flights arriving at Dallas-Ft Worth International Airport from the northeast. Perhaps from the north even. They take some sort of instrument check near here and buzz on by. At night, when they're easily seen, it's like a slowly moving meteor shower there are that many. (And on the days after 9/11 when all flights were grounded, it was VERY lonely.)

Whenever we've been flying in from that direction, we can pick out the local landmarks, especially the high school and Wal-mart. It's fun to do and oh-so-tempting to say, "Can't I get off here? Otherwise, it's an hour and a half back!" And that's if we're lucky with the traffic.

So Friday night, I stood in my front yard, watching the beautiful moon rise full to the north of east, while many, many flat bed trailers with Christmas themes lined up down our street. The annual Christmas parade had arrived. Our property was host to number 12, 13, and 14 so I knew I'd get to see most of it without moving from the comfort of my own sidewalk. The temperature was mild, I turned on all my Christmas lights in response to all those in front of me, and shouted appropriate Christmas cheers to passersby and parade participants.

Then I looked up into the sky. First one plane, then another, and another, et cetera, came over. What did the people in the window seats think? Among all the regular town lights, there would be the static Christmas lights on houses and downtown areas. And in the middle of it, there would be a snake of light, moving very slowly, down my street, three blocks to the square, and around it, then reconfiguring and returning to the home base to dump its elves and angels.

Did the people in the planes see a Christmas parade too? Did they smile as I did? Did, perhaps, they just wonder what the heck was going on?