No, It's Not a Bomb Threat

There were an unusually large number of guns in downtown Denver today. At least, I assume that it was unusual to have that many. I guess there might be that many on any given day and I just don't know about it...

But today, I did know about it. When we walked to the hot dog cart across the street for lunch, we ended up watching some sort of sensitive delivery to a nearby building. I don't know what was in the truck - money? weapons grade plutonium? - but apparently delivery required them to block off a downtown street to back the truck into the building with the whole process guarded by several men with machine guns. I haven't seen men toting around machine guns since my days working for the Marine Corps. There's a much different feel to men with machine guns on a city street rather than on a military base!

Back at the hotel (where I've been involved with an education session all week) there were several men in uniform who seemed to be armed. That seemed a little unusual to me. But I knew the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team was staying there, I figured they were extra security for the team. And apparently the men in uniform who were armed were security for the team. All the other men in uniform - who were probably not armed, but who knows, really - were there for a conference on law enforcement.

All the uniforms were very much in evidence at lunchtime, and we had more than a few nurses come up and ask us if there was a problem at the hotel. Was it a bomb threat? Had someone been hurt? What's the story? The actual story of a baseball team and a law enforcement conference was much less exciting than the theories they were coming up with. :)

Speaking of the Brewers (and wandering completely away from my original topic, by the way), they are some very large men. I never pictured pro baseball players as being much different from the guys playing baseball for the local rec-center league. You know, appearance-wise. You know that pro basketball players are going to be a lot bigger and taller than some guys playing pick-up ball on the playground court, but I didn't realize the same thing applied to baseball. But as I was leaving the hotel today, the Brewers were just returning from their afternoon game against the Rockies. I had to weave my way through quite a large crowd of them to get to the escalator. (The security guys waved me on through. Apparently I didn't look like a threat or potential stalker.) Walking through the crowd of baseball players was a new experience for me... as it would be for most people I think. That's when I realized that they were all quite tall. Definitely head and shoulders above me.

So, nothing profound to say about that, I guess. Just that they were tall. (And seemed a little sad. The Rockies won the game.)