Don’t get me wrong….
Cats: odd things|I truly do appreciate living a civil society that keeps its streets clean.
I also appreciate the effort of city workers who operate street cleaning machines.
I particularly appreciate the fact that they operate these big hulking machines in the middle of the night so as not to disrupt the movement of traffic and people through our clean city streets.
I furthermore appreciate the fact that our civil laws require these big hulking machines to sound high-pitched beeps to alert everyone when they are moving in reverse.
So why is it that when I wake up at 2:45 on a Monday morning to the sound of the big hulking street cleaner with its backwards beeping, I don’t appreciate it?
And why is that an hour and a half later when I am still awake, I am cursing these big hulking machines that keep our streets clean.
Why is it that at dawn, I am cursing the morning chorus of birds, wishing they’d go to hell, wishing my street cleaner would go to hell, wishing that civil society would go there too?
Why?
August 20th, 2007 at 5:33 am
There is nothing worse than that first “chirp, chirp” you hear at about 4 a.m. when you can’t get to sleep or have been awakened by something like a hulking street cleaner. My heart plummets when I hear the first “chirp, chirp” because you know there are thousands more of them who are soon going to wake up and join in, and by 5:30 it will be a virtual cacophony of chirping, whistling, tweeting feathered demons. And if it’s hot, you can’t shut the window.
August 20th, 2007 at 5:38 am
Here here, Jacy. Down with the early-morning street cleaners and the early morning tweeters. Let’s start a revolution.
August 20th, 2007 at 6:08 am
What a couple of grumps … now the street cleaner chorus I can agree is a dismal part of urban life, but the Morning Chorus!That first chirp, tweet or wharble is something so timeless … something that will have occurred long before man started messin’ with the planet! Actually, it is fortunate in some ways that the ascendancy of man occurred evolutionarily when it did … because with the link between birds and reptiles, a few hundred million years ago the dawn chorus might have been started by the throaty utterings of T-Rex (no, not Marc Bolan). Then again, maybe the beast would have done for the street cleaner!
August 20th, 2007 at 8:09 am
I agree, Tonardo, but when I used to work an overnight shift, I started to hate the chirping birds. I wish mankind had followed their lead — we should all be working 6 to 2 p.m. days, none of this 9 to 5 stuff, and be in bed by eight and up with the birds at four.
But we have strayed from the natural order of things and unfortunately, resentment about their early-morning chirping is the consequence!
p.s. I actually love birds.
August 20th, 2007 at 9:02 am
I find it disturbing that anyone would find birds singing as disturbing. I love to hear the birds and the frogs singing and chirping.
Nature sounds I don’t like:
Cricket somewhere in bedroom.
Mosquito somewhere in bedroom.
Coyote yiping outside of tent.
Disturbed hornet nest (not so much the sound as the implied proximity).
Other nature sounds I like:
Grouse drumming.
Deer bleating.
Moose grunting.
Woodpecker pecking.
We are animals that smell funny and make loads of noise. Just think how the poor robins must feel.
August 20th, 2007 at 10:30 am
I absolutely despise anything or anyone that prevents me from achieving a complete eight hours of sleep, so I sympathize, GT.
And I have to be honest. Crickets chirping and birds singing annoy me too. They are free to make noise- just AFTER I wake up
P.S. I like birds that don’t fly and therefore that don’t take a poo on my head.
August 20th, 2007 at 10:31 am
Wait, crickets don’t chirp. What do they do? Cricket?
August 20th, 2007 at 10:45 am
According to Wikipedia they chirp and sing…
“Crickets are known for their chirp (which only male crickets can do; male wings have ridges or “teeth” that act like a “comb and file” instrument). The left forewing has a thick rib (a modified vein) which bears 50 to 300 “teeth”. The chirp is generated by raising their left forewing to a 45 degree angle and rubbing it against the upper hind edge of the right forewing, which has a thick scraper (Berenbaum 1995). This sound producing action is called “stridulation” and the song is species-specific. There are two types of cricket songs: a calling song and a courting song. The calling song attracts females and repels other males, and is fairly loud. The courting song is used when a female cricket is near, and is a very quiet song.”
And according to Dictionary.com…
Chirp: 1. to make a characteristic short, sharp sound, as small birds and certain insects.
Crickets annoy.
August 20th, 2007 at 10:48 am
Ooh, I was right. Score one for me!
Also, “stridulation” is a funny word…GT probably agrees;)
August 20th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Dick, it’s well known that people who are sleep deprived can display disturbed behaviours like DEATH TO ALL BIRDS WHO KEEP ME AWAKE!
Deepti, stidulation is a funny word but I am feeling so disagreeable to day that I refuse to agree with anything.
I’m with Jacy, liking birds who know their place.
August 20th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Their place being Antarctica?
yukyuk
August 20th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
I have much more respect for the street cleaners than I have for people who insist on pressure washing their driveways while I am enjoying a nice Sunday afternoon nap. For the love of God - how much of a neat freak do you have be to actually wash your driveway on a regular basis (my neighbours arre freaks) & how environmentally unfriendly is it to waste water washing a driveway!!!! (I love any “environmentally friendly” excuse that can get me out of any chore - not that you would ever catch me washing my driveway)
August 21st, 2007 at 3:21 am
Deepti, or Pluto.
H&P, the environmentally friendly excuse has always worked for me when it comes to the hoover.
August 21st, 2007 at 4:46 pm
You’re just cranky, that’s what!
August 21st, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Yes, Dale, but that was yesterday, and as Karen Carpenter famously said
“and I threw my sadness away, only yesterday….”
August 21st, 2007 at 6:03 pm
My turn tomorrow morning.