Woke to the Beep Beep Beep Beep … of a backhoe on the south side of our house. I guess they (the neighbors) are really going through with it, building a house. Well, some stumps are gone anyway, though we’re a long way from the fondue party on granite counter tops. I don’t doubt the Beep Beep Beep Beep … is an attention getter (with the possible exception of moose, more on this below), intended to alert unwary innocents, so they should not be crushed beneath the ruthless tread of monster wheels, but really, wouldn’t a more tonally pleasant tocsin achieve the same goal? Maybe something consonant with songbirds and Spring, thereby saving us all the teeth-grinding aggravation of that ceaseless $%^&*# sonic tyranny!
Breathe. Just breathe.
Imagine trying to enjoy the daily rag and a cup of coffee with Happy Wife, whilst seated on the infield of a Nascar racetrack during the victory lap. That’s how our morning started. You see, the other side of our house, the north side, is bordered by a moderately busy street.
Anyway, the moose. I should have taken a photograph. A big cow moose was evidently not the least bit unnerved by the backhoe’s assault on the landscape, or the interminable Beep Beep Beep Beep … . She just stood there, munching the leaves ‘n branches of a felled Mayday tree like she was in a moose sanctuary. So much for the incompatibility of wildlife and progress.
Sort of like caribou serenely assembled beneath TAPS:
You thought I was kidding.
I awoke, this morning, to the sound of a large hornet buzzing my head. While this sound is undoubtedly more pleasant than the “Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep” of a backhoe, none-the-less I was still roused from my bed earlier than I had intended. Did not hear much traffic, though, as I was in the woods.
Bzzz bzzz bzzz … Splat!
Yes, I did dispatch the hornet.