2:30 am and Suerte is restless, standing purring between us. After a few minutes he approaches LIlly at my feet, wanting to wrestle. rrrrRRRSTT. Lilly is not interested. Suerte jumps down thud and aaaarrrough aarrrrrough arrrrouuuugh he voices his boredom for a couple minutes then retreats upstairs.
I’ll be awake for a while. Cricket chirps loud and fast, must be warm out, lets try the balcony. Head upstairs where Suerte awaits wanting food. I check, he has food, really is just bored. I scratch him and go out to the balcony. It is warm enough. I lay on the hammock. Chirps come from everywhere.
BAM Slam ... click ... Bam ... SLAM Bam. Neighbor getting into car? Out of car? Probably the slug teenager next door.
Rustling in the leaves in side yard. Eouw Chrour Errow. What the hell is that? ... and again. Never heard that sound before, some angry bird? At 2:30? Doesn’t sound mammalian ... Again, rustling in leaves, crazy wild sound louder, approaching. Crickets continue to chirp so can’t be a threat to them. Very insistent, irritated, demanding sound ... Again rustling, again sound, circling partway across yard. It's not going to crawl up here, is it?
Lots of stars, sky dark grey not black but the moon has already set? Black silhouettes of trees and house against sky, stars. White gutter black in this light, yard is darker than sky ... Slam Slam ... Rustling in side yard approaches house ... Tire noise from distant car approaching quietly on Skyline for quite some time then shushes by and fades ... Bam click Slam. Cyndi thinks the kid is OCD.
Now leaves rustle below .. Aauuo Aauuo softly. Boo Bear, neighbors outdoor cat just below me, probably looking for Suerte. Maybe Boo woke Suerte? Maybe Boo chased bizarre sound in side yard? Anyway, that crazy spooky sound is gone for now ... Bam click Bam Slam.
Flash! Meteorite zips by heading north crossing 30 degrees of sky, tail maybe 5 degrees. Cool ... Dog starts barking in distance, then another, then another. Something moving thru neighborhood across Skyline, maybe half mile away. First dog, then second dog ... both big dogs ... stop barking. Third dog is a yipper and continues to yip. Fourth then fifth dogs, both big, bark a few times then are silent. Barking moving southward about 3 miles an hour. Yipper continues for several minutes, slowly winds down.
Black shadow swims by overhead a few feet above, below the gutter, slow, small. A bat. Explains lack of mosquitoes ... Crickets in side yard suddenly stop chirping but continue in lower yard. Rustling in side yard leaves, snuffling.
HACK HaaacK Couuugh from neighbors. Sleeping with window open? ... Car tire sound approaches again, this time car turns into neighborhood, lights up yard briefly, gutter white then returns to black ... car passes by below then turns onto Big Tree, tire noise quickly fades ... Rustling snuffling moves to Party Deck area.
Hoo Hoo ... Hoo ... Hoo Hoo Hoo. Owl in distance, only natural predator of skunks.
An incoming jet overhead heading east towards SFO. Not many jets this time of night, approaches silently until overhead, the quiet throttled back engine noise trails jet by 5 seconds. Can't see plane, only see lights on nose, wings, tail ... appears to be flying trapezoid, UFO. Flash! Another meteorite, again heading north, just behind jet barely missing it by 20 miles.
HaaacK HACK Couuuuugh. Should stop smoking, dude ... At least OCD slug teen has quieted down ... Now chirps come from side yard but not from below. Rustling snuffling from below too. Must be an opossum or something looking for crickets to eat ... A bat flies overhead heading the other direction, again slowly ... must not be many bugs to dart after tonight.
rrrrRRRSTT! RRRSSST! RRST! Cat fight near neighbors. Boo again? Over quick, just hissing. Boo style.
Motorcycle noise. Much much louder than car, can hear from much further away. Coming up hill? Sound continues one two three minutes ... More dogs bark, this time closer. Again something moving thru neighborhood, this time northwards. Only larger dogs this time, quickly return to silence ... Finally motorcycle noise starts to fade, going down the other side of the hill. So much noisier than cars. Bicycles noisier than cars too. Rant 30: sometimes I hate pedestrians, sometimes I hate cars but I always hate bicyclists.
Crickets all chirping again. Slight beat to sound, different groups, different temps? Beat has frequency of about 1 cycle per 5 seconds. What temp difference does that imply? How does a cricket know which group to synchronize with? This implies frequency quantization, digital cricket thermometers. Is quantization inate behavior? Or emergent? Too tired, too much thinking, don’t care. Still amazed at how much temp, weather changes in just a few feet here. Stop thinking, just watch, listen.
Whoosh a large fast black shodow heads north, higher than bats, much larger, faster. Must be owl.
Another jet overhead, leaving SFO. Contrail grey shadow visible against darker grey sky. But it is night, shouldn't see contrails. Too much light from Bay Area, much better when marine layer muffles city lights. Jet goes by ascending only a small roar, much less than motorcycle.
Wow, stars move fast in sky, those stars are much closer to the tree than before. Can almost see them twist around pole ... Yipping in distance from a few places, coyotes. Maybe the dogs were barking at them? ... Ooooh, that meteorite is large! Slower than the others, yellow-ish, more than 60 degrees north east across the sky, tail half that long, visibly wide and stuttered dashed at the end. Breakup.
That is enough, killed 90 minutes, can sleep again. Back inside I disturb Suerte. He looks irritated then shoves his head back into his paws and returns to sleep. I shall do the same.