NOAA at Work in Our Backyard

I told Mom about this.  She thought it interesting enough to post so here goes.  Last Saturday morning Amy and I went to fill the larder for guests arriving early afternoon.  When we got back a little after 10:30 AM there was a parachute hanging upside down in the star magnolia tree.  It crossed my mind that we'd been under rocket attack from the kids and the dads next door as they're always having some new kind of fun (often ending up in our backyard).  They're all nice folks.   We get along well and things will stay that way as long as they continue to let Tony and myself massacre them in backyard boccie.  Tony and Emily finally arrived and we sat under the tree sipping our summers coolers with olives, cheese etc.  After some time Tony said, "ah, Mark, what is that?"  Time to find out.   I wrapped the heavy string around my arms and had to use body weight to bring it down,  wrapping more string, pulling until it ripped loose from the tree and a box fell at our feet.  Here are the photos.  If you look closely you can see the wire on the left of one shot.  I think it sends info back to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration base as it's aloft and they like it returned for reuse. It goes in the mail this morning.