The Thunderbirds are coming

It's a bird, it's a plane...wait a minute, it is a plane. There's nothing quite like an F-16 buzzing past your building to shake up the work day.

It's a matter of topography. About 150 yards from the south side of our office building, the land drops off into the Menomonee River valley, once home to a multitude of manufacturing firms, more lately to the Indian casino, University Athletic Fields, the Harley-Davidson Museum and the Iron Horse Hotel.

The air show itself is done out over the lake, but the runoff area for some of the maneuvers takes the planes inland over the river valley. The valley is low; our offices are on a slight rise, and we are on the second floor. The convergence of these two facts means we can look out the windows and see the jets zooming past - at just above our eye level.

True, it's not the air show itself, but the practice day on Friday that rattles our windows and pulls people out of their offices to invade the cubes next to the banks of windows. But it's free, and a great break from the work day.