And That, My Friends, Is Good Television

Tonight we were sitting around eating dinner after the little angel went to bed.  "Flip over to CNN so we can see what's going on with the hurricane," I said.

My beloved flipped over, and there was a JetBlue plane, preparing to land with its landing gear rotated at a 45-degree angle.  The hub of the wheel was facing FRONT.

My heart dropped.  As my pulse raced, I thought, I cannot watch another tragedy on live television.  I just can't.

The plane was coming in for a landing.  Larry King was talking to some other pilot who flew similar planes.  There was no foam on the runway, no visible fire trucks.  Just this plane with bent landing gear and a long stretch of asphalt runway.

It descended with that whacked-out wheel. I felt like I really might have a heart attack. 

Come on, baby.

Come on, come on, come on.

I couldn't watch.

I did watch, and the back wheels touched down.  The nose stayed in the air for two or three beats.  Flashbacks of 9/11 live television flitted past my eyes.  The NPR reports of the roof ripping off the dome in New Orleans played in my ears. 

Come on, come on, come on, dammit. 

The front wheels touched down.  Live. 

I thought - oh, God...a 737 is going to explode, and I am going to watch it.

Larry told the pilot to be quiet.  We were holding our breaths.  I could feel vein in my temple throbbing.

The wheels melted and caught fire.  I thought I might throw up.

Then...it skidded to a stop.  Nothing exploded.  I could see the pilot in the cockpit jumping up and down.

On this night, maybe a night or two before another hurricane that shares my name will or won't wreak havoc on my country and my Houston-based, hunkered-down cousins, nothing bad happened.  Nobody died. 

We will watch victory footage tonight.

The firetrucks circled the plane, but the firemen didn't run.  The ambled over to the staircase wheeled to the door and shook the hands of the deplaning passengers.  There were no shots of crying relatives.  There were no voiceovers of last words.

America dodged a bullet tonight.  And that, my friends, is good television.