28 | August | 2013 | NoisyRoom.net

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

Many of you know that we just moved 1800 miles to Tulsa, Oklahoma. It’s been one wild ride over the last two months, but we are finally settling in.

It’s sooo green here! Not what I expected at all. Very hot and very high humidity. Spiders big enough to put a saddle on and rope cattle. Don’t ask. The people are wonderful here — among the nicest and friendliest I have ever met and I’ve lived in a lot of places. In the middle of the Bible Belt, I feel right at home. Oklahoma is said to be the most conservative state in the Union. I love it.

But, if I held any beliefs that the surveillance state had not encroached on the Okies, I found out differently Monday night. I don’t know if it was personal or if anyone even knows I’m here or cares, but I had my first drone experience.

We had just turned in for the night. It was about 9:30 PM. Our bedroom’s window is at the front of the house. Reason 1,387 that I will lease a different home in a year. Suddenly, we heard a motor that sounded liked a radio controlled plane and strobe lights lit up our window. It only lasted a few minutes. We believe it was a UAV Police Helicopter with strobe lights. It looked us over for a brief period, then rose and left like nothing happened. We were just relieved we were not SWATted.

We did however bring our guns into the bedroom, where they stay with ammo. I did not sleep well for the remainder of the evening and hubby was up all night checking the perimeter. The whole thing creeped me out and hubby is less than thrilled. The experience brought our lives and what we do into sharper focus. Way to greet a well known blogger Oklahoma! Won’t slow me down a bit — my family is from Oklahoma and we are Oklahoma strong. A fruit basket would have been nicer. Just sayin’.

The Watcher’s Council

Welcome to the Watcher’s Council, a blogging group consisting of some of the most incisive blogs in the ‘sphere and the longest running group of its kind in existence. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. Then we vote on the best two posts, with the results appearing on Friday.

Council News:

This week, Ask Marion, Crazy Bald Guy, Maggie’s Notebook and The Pirate’s Cove took advantage of my generous offer of link whorage and earned honorable mention status.

You can, too! Want to see your work appear on the Watcher’s Council homepage in our weekly contest listing? Didn’t get nominated by a Council member? No worries.

Simply head over to Joshuapundit and post the title and a link to the piece you want considered along with an e-mail address (which won’t be published) in the comments section no later than Monday 6 PM PST in order to be considered for our honorable mention category. Then return the favor by creating a post on your site linking to the Watcher’s Council contest for the week when it comes out Wednesday morning.

Simple, no?

It’s a great way of exposing your best work to Watcher’s Council readers and Council members, while grabbing the increased traffic and notoriety. And how good is that, eh?

So, let’s see what we have this week…

Council Submissions