Just another day on base.

This afternoon I was sitting at my desk, gazing out the window working, when from out of nowhere a phalanx of emergency vehicles appeared at the guarded, gated base housing entrance a stone's throw away from our back yard. There was a fire truck, an ambulance, a k-9 vehicle, several base police cruisers, and a giant RV-like vehicle that looked like what the SWAT team uses in action movies. They quickly blocked off the road and closed the gate, stationing armed men behind concrete barriers. A pair of officers with German shepherds stood at a distance.

A group of people were milling about outside the gate, chanting "Water, water, we want water!" and "H20, H20!"

Angry farmers who thought Nancy Pelosi was in town? New recruits being hazed? Navy wives driven mad by thirst?

WHAT WAS GOING ON IN MY BACKYARD?

I had to know!

So like any good gawker American, I popped a bagel in the toaster and set up shop in front of the window to watch the spectacle unfold and shout play-by-play to Jason, who was sitting in the living room and couldn't have cared less. I made it back with my bagel just in time to see a tanker truck pull into the fray.

Water, water, they got water!

Well, the grass did, anyway. The tanker sprayed some on the grass, but not on the people.

And just like that, it was all over. The vehicles drove away without any fanfare and traffic began flowing through the gate once again as if nothing had happened.

It was just a training exercise. Nothing to get excited about.

We do that kind of thing here.