Suspicious item detonated ...

And it was detonated very close to our new van!

Any locals catch the news about this? Here's a link that should work from the Tribune: http://www.lacrossetribune.com/articles/2007/05/16/news/05bomb.txt

Sounds pretty simple ... someone finds a suspicious item (a cylinder with a magnet apparently ... not sure how suspicious I would have found it ... apparently I need to become more suspicious of things) and notifies the police and the police notify the Explosive Ordnance Demolition Team (in our case from Fort McCoy) ...

Let's back up though...

Are you familiar with the book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (by Judith Viorst)? Yeah, that was my day BEFORE the whole "you need to move your car" episode. All little things that I will hardly remember next week, but it was building to a "nothing is going right" kind of day -- from falling back asleep after the alarm went off and then opening the bedroom door to immediately smell that the cat litter was NOT working (that could be an entire post) ... and frustration after frustration at work ...

So then a co-worker cam on the intercom and announced that anyone parked on 2nd street had to move their car due to a bomb threat (or some vague reference to the bomb squad). Hmmm, I thought that would be a pain and I wonder what's going on, but I'm not parked on 2nd street so... Then I start overhearing people talk about streets being blocked off, etc. ... the Tribune posted a short blurb about it already on their site ... eventually I get the idea that it's more than 2nd street and I better go see what's going on. I happened to be having an Instant Messenger conversation with Shawn at the same time (we LOVE IM ... especially with him out of town) so I quickly pasted the link from the trib and told him I was going down to see about the van.

The van was parked in the Harbour View Business Objects parking lot (Shawn's workplace but not his building) which AND it was parked in the row closest to my building which also happens to be closest to the Radison and VERY close to the statue the suspicious item was found near (WHY did I park there today when I had been in the habit of parking in the row adjacent to 2nd street?). There is a parking sticker allowing me to be in the lot (or rather the vehicle) but of course Shawn is in San Jose today and could NOT here their announcement about moving cars ... he got an email that he read after I told him ... and a coworker told him to call him ASAP but again that was at about the same time I was telling him ... and someone from Business Objects called my work about it too and that was WHILE I was out trying to move the van.

Yes, while I was TRYING ... By the time I got out there -- even with all this "instant" communication -- the "bomb squad" was there and wouldn't let anyone that close ... If I was on 2nd street they probably would have let me, sigh. So, one of the higher up police officers (sorry I didn't take the time to ask for his title) took my name, cell phone number AND my keys. He wanted to move it for me but he wasn't allowed in either so he just took my keys.

In the meantime I was getting messages (from whoever called) that if I didn't move my car it would be towed. I tried to assure coworkers (and Shawn) that if they wouldn't let anyone in to drive it away, then I don't think they were going to let a tow truck in either. So ... I would just have to sit tight and hope no damage was done. The officer had said it should all be over in a half an hour (I said I needed to leave at 2:30 to get my daughter ... that seemed important at the time).

I was back to my desk some time around 11:30 I think but I'm not sure ... I do remember the officer asking what time I took lunch (yeah, that was funny ... generally when I don't bring lunch we have something delivered and that wasn't going to happen). As soon as I started working at my desk again my tummy started grumbling ... remember I was late getting up this morning so there was nothing besides more snack bars in my desk/fridge and I already had 2 of those for breakfast.

Finally at 12:30 a couple of us were going to go out our buildings other door and try to walk someplace to get food (no buildings were evacuated but all the streets around our building were blocked off). Then, finally my cell phone rang ... I could come get my keys.

When I got there I asked if I should still move it (dumb eh ... thought I should ask though). I was told that no, it didn't matter now and it was over as they "blew it up."

I went to get lunch at the sub place across the street from my building ... several of the "higher ups" from the "crime scene" ended up behind me in line.

Luckily my day got better when I got home to my girls so I don't have to move to Australia after all (read the book) ... Megan reminded me that they have Horrible, no good, very bad days in Australia too. :-)

Just have to sneak in a quick comment about my wonderful girls -- they are hands down THE BEST! Megan has been super helpful again and Nessa has been SO SWEET this week too ... hopefully more happy family blog posts and photos soon.

So, now I need to go finish changing over the cat litter and so on ... and then CRASH!!!