Neal Boortz likes to joke with me that I work in the "building with the big bullseye" on it in Washington, D.C., that being the U.S. Capitol.

I got a reminder of that as I arrived for work on Monday morning.

Getting off the elevator on the third floor of the Capitol, I noticed that all the guards were in place, the lights were on inside the Senate chamber, etc.

I thought the Senate was coming in at 2pm, but I guess it must be 9:30am today, I thought.

No, I didn't forget something, instead it was the Senate being put through its paces by security personnel, just in case.  You know, just in case.

I wanted to go into the galleries to get a look from inside the Senate Chamber, but we scribes weren't allowed to see what was going on unfortunately.   But I was able to dredge up a few details in the hallways around there.

There was the drill for an "Air Con Threat Alert" as it's known - that's when a plane strays into the protected airspace around Washington, D.C. without proper authority.

In other words, is it just some pilot that made a mistake, or is it a plane that's weighed down with bombs and headed for the U.S. Capitol?

Senatorial proxies were also on the floor for a "Shelter In Place" drill.  You can figure that one out.  Just one of the many scenarios that I'm sure have been worked up over the years and that we could work up over a cup of Joe or a beverage of your choice.

When I have a dream at night about being in the Capitol when it is hit by a plane (I had one just the other night in fact) I always seem to get out alive, so I figure that I've got that working for me in terms of luck.

Thankfully the frequency of those has greatly diminished since the immediate aftermath of Nine Eleven, when my choice of going to work in the Capitol was questioned by many people.

I assume most of you don't go to work worried about whether you will be blown up.  You worry more about how can you put sugar in the gas tank of the one person that aggravates the crap out of you at work.  Simple stuff like that.

A few years before Nine Eleven, I was leaving the Capitol after a late night of work, going down one of the grand staircases on the Senate side, the one with the painting depicting the Battle of Lake Erie.

As I headed down the stairs, I stopped dead in my tracks as I saw a group of police officers moving up the stairs like they were about to take back the building from a group of terrorists.

Just a drill, sir, just a drill.

About 15 years ago, the then Sergeant-at-Arms of the U.S. House of Representatives raised eyebrows when he wanted to build a fence around the grounds of the Capitol, in order to enhance security.

That was never built, but now we have heavily armed officers lurking behind the trees with high powered assault weapons.

It used to be that you could drive your car across the Capitol Plaza.  It used to be that you could drive past the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue. 

I know a guy who bought a house to the north and west of the city, because the prevailing winds usually blow the other way.  You can figure that out for yourself.

Just another day living in the bullseye.