Cannon Balls?

So sometime last week I got woken up at 6:40 am (!) to a loud successive shooting noises. Its a good thing that I'm such an avid blog reader that I knew that it was probably the cannon balls being shot off aka "practiced" and to not freak out, roll over, and go back to sleep.

NBD, its just some cannons going off...where do I live?!?!?!?

Well, I fell back asleep then trolled the blog reels that I read and lo and behold, it was cannons:

This morning, DCist heard more complaints from District residents about yet another loud racket which woke them up a little earlier than they would have preferred. Fortunately, though, we didn't have to go on quite the same kind of wild goose chase to figure out what happened this time -- Arlington's alert system filled us in that, indeed, the booming noises were again blank cannon blasts, fired during a drill conducted by the Old Guard's Presidential Salute Battery.

The Presidential Salute Battery will be conducting firing drills (canon [sic] fire) in Arlington National Cemetery May 2 from 6:30 to 8:00 a.m. The training is being conducted before the cemetery opens to not interfere with ongoing memorial services.

If you'll recall, the Old Guard told DCist last month that they began aiming the World War II Anti-Tank Gun they use for training purposes over the Potomac River, after residents in North Arlington complained about the noise. Sounds like it might be time for those of you who live across the river from the Cemetery to sign up for the Arlington alert system.