Pilot Can at the Queer of God
(Ivins/Jones/Drozd/Coyne) The Flaming Lips
Oh god Has she always lived here? (I think she has) Oh god Has she always looked like that? (I think she has) Oh god God, has she forgot me? (I think she has) Oh god Has she joined the army? (I think she has) Oh god Has she left here? (I think she has) In her grown up years In her pilot years (I think she has) Like she came from outer space Has she turned queer? Oh god (Yes she has) In her grown up years In a pilot dream (Yes she has) Like she came from outer space And now she's got helicopters (Yes she has) (Yes she has) And now she's got helicopters And now she's got helicopters And now she's got helicopters (Yes she has) (Yes she has) And now she's got helicopters And now she's got helicopters (Yes she has) (Yes she has)If I had been cooler back in the day, I suppose I should have been listening to The Flaming Lips - they fit in so well with what I was listening to - but although I had never heard this song before, I chose it today for the helicopter theme (note the header photo), and accidentally, it fits my theme of pretensions to cool and my fears about looking like a dork. And it turns out it's a pretty cool song: Win-win.To cap off our summer of exploring the Grand River that runs through our town, Dave and I had arranged a helicopter ride through Great Lakes Helicopter. As they used to have advertised on their website, one of the experiences they offer is to provide a flight following along the Grand River waterway, followed by a stop at a coffee shop in a town south of here, and after going in and purchasing our Double Doubles and Apple Fritters, we'd hop back on our private helicopter and return to base. When I first Googled experiences along the Grand, I presented this idea to Dave as the coup de grace - I actually called it our Douchebag Option - and of course Dave was immediately on board and agreed that it would be the perfect way to end our Summer on the Grand. As so, to last Saturday.After a bit of waiting at the beginning - there were some African-accented men who had gone on a ride immediately before us, and as they were filming a music video (!), they held us up as they filmed their singer getting in and out of the helicopter from different angles - we were in and ready to fly. It had been drizzly all morning (which I wasn't going to let affect my enjoyment; I decided it would just be its own kind of experience if we were travelling through clouds and mist), but it was glorious when the sun broke through as we were waiting; in the end, the weather couldn't have been better for a Fall day. I have to admit that it was a bit scary and nauseating at first - it was a little windy and the small craft lurched slightly back and forth as it lifted off - but I will also add that I had a huge grin on my face the entire time.We flew along the Grand River as planned, and it was a remarkably different perspective on the waterway that we had slowly floated down and biked alongside so many times this summer - made especially spectacular by the now autumnal foliage.Now, I had been fairly worried about looking like a twit - hence my comment about pretentions to coollness - and I really didn't know what to expect by "landing at a Tim Hortons in St. George", but that kind of attention isn't really what I want and I feared that I'd chicken out of getting out of the helicopter once it landed. But, no worries - it landed in a field away from the coffee shop, and as arranged, Kennedy was waiting there to take a hundred pictures of us (including that header picture) and I was able to get out of the helicopter as though I was performing only for her (as a matter of fact, I was posing so pointedly nonchalantly for Kennedy that most of her pictures were unusable).And I thought that we had gotten away without looking like twits to anyone inside the restaurant, but when the man ahead of us in line received his order, he then turned to us and said, "You showed up on some fancy ride, eh?" And we could only nod and laugh (and I only felt slightly douchey). As we stood outside with our coffees, I suddenly thought to ask the pilot if we could fly Kennedy back with us (and we'd bring her back to her car later) and he agreed, so I was happy that she got to share this experience with us, too.It was funny that when we were back inside the helicopter, waiting a few minutes as the pilot warmed everything up again, a couple of families with young children came to the edge of the parking lot and the kids were waving at us and the parents were taking pictures. I wonder if they thought we were anyone important? We waved back to them as we took off, and every one of them gave us a big overhead wave in return, and that felt like a nice, human moment.Here's my biggest takeaway from this entire Grand River experience: everyone should be so lucky as to find someone who will whole-heartedly agree when you say, "I've had this crazy idea..." Let's get bikes and ride in the Tour de Grand. Yes. Let's go tubing, rafting, on a dinner cruise. Yes, yes, yes. Let's take a moonlit paranormal night paddle. Yes. Let's take a helicopter ride and risk looking like dorks. A hundred times, yes. Everyone should be so lucky.*I have no idea why there are so many big spaces between pictures and paragraphs and I've fiddled around with this for far too long already to care anymore. Gah.
