I spent the fourth of July in a blimp hanger and avoiding aliens from outer space. I’ve nothing against blimp hangers, but the aliens…
Actually, I’m quite fond of blimps or the idea of blimps. Kind of like zepplins, aren’t they? Or are they the same thing? I’m not sure I’m quite up on this sort of thing. 
But I love the idea of floating around in the sky, though I’m deathly afraid of heights so I’m not sure where this comes from. If you’ve ever thought you’d be into floating around in a zepplin, you have to read Airborn by Kenneth Opal. I think I reviewed it somewhere, but it’s not coming up on a google search. At any rate, there are pirates, a kick ass girl, and lots of floating. I highly recommend it.Â
Unfortunately, there were no actual blimps in this blimp hanger. The hanger is at Fort Warden in Port Townsend, WA and it’s now a musical venue. Still, as I sat and enjoyed some super fabulous music from Fiddle Tunes, a mix of groups from all over that play music descended from traditional Celtic music, I did imagine some blimp cruising adventures. Except during the really, really good parts like when these cute Quebecoise boys were playing and everyone was stamping and clapping. It’s very difficult to listen to music, stamp, clap AND dream about floating in blimps.Â
The only problem with the blimp hanger/musical venue set up is that it isn’t overly large once the stage is in, so they sardine pack you. This is fine most of the time. Until the Mini Donut Emergency strikes. I’ve never actually had a Mini Donut Emergency before. I didn’t even really know I liked them all that much. But there I was listening to maybe not my most favorite of the musicians (they were all good, but you know some just get you more than others – I’m sure it’s different for everyone and has something to do with taste, where you grew up, shoe size etc.) and ALL OF A SUDDEN I had to have mini donuts.Â
And it was not happening. There were literally dozens of people around me in every direction keeping me from sneaking out for mini donuts. Between every song I eyed my possibilities. Finally, there was nothing to be done. I made seven people stand up, elbowed a good half dozen others, and swooped around the leaners and the millers to get to the mini donut stand. They were so worth it! How had I never realized this before?
So, all in all, it was a fun day. Then there were the aliens from outer space living in Puget Sound which I avoided at all costs. Here’s footage taken by braver souls than myself* of said aliens (and a short and uninformative course on crab sexing).
Did you see that thing????? It’s an alien, right? Ready to suck off my face!!! I’m not of the All Aliens are Bad persuasion by any means, I’m sure there are some nice ones out there. But this thing, this is not a friendly creature. There are just too many legs. And suckers. Eeee!!!!! And it has to be an alien planted here. I refuse to believe that this planet would make something so horrendous to terrify me.
Although I’ve heard that octopus are worse what with them being so smart and all. Plus, they’ve got the too many legs factor, possibly some suckers, and definitely a sick jelliness issue.
Super Aliens?
I hope you all had a great weekend!
Bridget
*Footage taken by Barrett, crabbing done by my dad.
Added Later: I was just reading some other blogs and it turns out Scott Westerfeld blogged about zepplins this week too. Could I somehow have developed some kind of a psychic link with Scott Westerfeld???