Things that go "Cockadoodle do" in the Night.
Our temporary abode is in a very interesting neighbourhood. Since we moved in, we've met some of our neighbours, reacquainted ourselves with living 'close to town' and been privy to many types of activity - some legal and some not-so-legal.
One thing which takes getting used to is the type of noises we hear. There's a four of us living in a small space, and some of us (the two teen-aged boys in particular) generate a lot of heat. So we often open up the windows to get the air moving. This is a Catch 22 Decision, because the noise on the street can be very loud.
We are close to the freeway, and the airport, and the main thoroughfare of town. So we hear traffic, airplanes, ambulances, buses, as well as the conversations of people on the street. Some of these conversations are held in the middle of the night. Much as I like to be a people watcher, I am not really interested in what the young things two floors down and one door over think of the state of the world. This is mostly because they choose to share that information beginning at 2:30 in the morning when they arrive home from their parties. At that time of the night, the opinions they share are not well informed.
Every night, we are faced with the dilemma. Do we open the window so we can breathe? If so, will we be successful in blocking out the noise enough to get some semblance of sleep? Or do we close the window, and suffer all night with the heat and suffocating airlessness we create simply by breathing?
One night this week, we bit the bullet and opened the window. Thankfully, apart from a few sirens, and the slamming of doors by the construction workers leaving for their jobs at 4:00, all was quiet until 7:10 a.m. That's when the strangest car alarm went off. It was not incessant, just sang every once in a while. I looked out to see whose car was the culprit. Nothing. In any case it was the strangest car alarm I'd ever heard. It sounded suspiciously like a rooster. Soon, it crowed again. Only, he just crowed half way and then stopped. I thought perhaps my mind had played a trick on me and I was hearing a different kind of bird. I looked out the window, and saw nothing but a neighbour walking the dog.
I decided I was wrong. After all, we live in the city now. There couldn't possibly be a rooster taking up residence here.
The next day, my #2 son and I were coming home for the evening and he spotted it. "There's the rooster!" he said. I circled the driveway and sure enough, there was the rooster going for a stroll around the front of the building. My son took a few pictures and then the rooster flew up into the laurel bush.
When I asked the gentleman across the road if he knew whose rooster it was, he looked at me like I was crazy. Then he went across the street to the laurel bush and grabbed it by the feet and walked back to the vehicle. Another neighbours dogs came out on their deck to create some more havoc - they might have been envisioning a chicken dinner in their bowls. Their owner said to the other neighbour "Oh you found the rooster. Yah, some guy was walking up and down looking for it."
Since the rooster was now someone else's problem, I drove off with my son and we had a good chuckle about it. At least I knew I wasn't hallucinating.
One thing which takes getting used to is the type of noises we hear. There's a four of us living in a small space, and some of us (the two teen-aged boys in particular) generate a lot of heat. So we often open up the windows to get the air moving. This is a Catch 22 Decision, because the noise on the street can be very loud.
We are close to the freeway, and the airport, and the main thoroughfare of town. So we hear traffic, airplanes, ambulances, buses, as well as the conversations of people on the street. Some of these conversations are held in the middle of the night. Much as I like to be a people watcher, I am not really interested in what the young things two floors down and one door over think of the state of the world. This is mostly because they choose to share that information beginning at 2:30 in the morning when they arrive home from their parties. At that time of the night, the opinions they share are not well informed.
Every night, we are faced with the dilemma. Do we open the window so we can breathe? If so, will we be successful in blocking out the noise enough to get some semblance of sleep? Or do we close the window, and suffer all night with the heat and suffocating airlessness we create simply by breathing?
One night this week, we bit the bullet and opened the window. Thankfully, apart from a few sirens, and the slamming of doors by the construction workers leaving for their jobs at 4:00, all was quiet until 7:10 a.m. That's when the strangest car alarm went off. It was not incessant, just sang every once in a while. I looked out to see whose car was the culprit. Nothing. In any case it was the strangest car alarm I'd ever heard. It sounded suspiciously like a rooster. Soon, it crowed again. Only, he just crowed half way and then stopped. I thought perhaps my mind had played a trick on me and I was hearing a different kind of bird. I looked out the window, and saw nothing but a neighbour walking the dog.
I decided I was wrong. After all, we live in the city now. There couldn't possibly be a rooster taking up residence here.
The next day, my #2 son and I were coming home for the evening and he spotted it. "There's the rooster!" he said. I circled the driveway and sure enough, there was the rooster going for a stroll around the front of the building. My son took a few pictures and then the rooster flew up into the laurel bush.
When I asked the gentleman across the road if he knew whose rooster it was, he looked at me like I was crazy. Then he went across the street to the laurel bush and grabbed it by the feet and walked back to the vehicle. Another neighbours dogs came out on their deck to create some more havoc - they might have been envisioning a chicken dinner in their bowls. Their owner said to the other neighbour "Oh you found the rooster. Yah, some guy was walking up and down looking for it."
Since the rooster was now someone else's problem, I drove off with my son and we had a good chuckle about it. At least I knew I wasn't hallucinating.
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Joy