MetaChat - I hear a symphony

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14 March 2007

I hear a symphony A true story:
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So I've got a temporary assignment at one of your huger dot coms and as luck would have it, one bus runs two blocks shy of total door to door. And as the hours are flex, I go in early as possible--Which means hitting the street at half past six. Which is now night again, thanks to the daylight savings time.

So, anyway, I'm waiting for the bus this morning and among the people at the stop is one annoying local street crazy who lives in a Section 8/low income apartment building near by. He panhandles money for cigarettes with a--"Spare change for a hungry man ?"--on Broadway about what seems like 24/7. And, trust me, he is annoying. It must have taken him ten years before he stopped hitting me up with his spiel and, man, talk about your wasting time on a dry well there...

Anyway, he gets on the same bus I do and then sits right behind me and coughs open mouthed and operatically--and oh man, does the boy in the bubble seem an enviable concept then. So, I slide about four feet forward from where I'm sitting on the sideways seat and try to not breathe for as long as I can.

He coughs so about five or six times before he gets off at the county hospital ...where he hits the bricks running--"Spare change for a hungry man ? Spare change for a hungry man ?"

Wow, I'm thinking then--this guy was commuting to work! And starting so early!

So, then while I'm all grimmed out and decompressing from thoughts of SARS and bird flu, I look out the bus window and see a big fat crescent moon sliding behind clouds and bare trees and when I get off at my stop and trudge to the front door where I'm working, there's about seven robins cheeriup cheeriup cheerio-ing, two or three song sparrows, one red winged black bird, some sort of wren and assorted chickadees singing their hearts out in the dark before dawn, some where between chamber music and full blown symphonic.

And then I went through that big brass door into work with a cheeriup cheeriup cheerio.

post by: y2karl at: 01:15 | 9 comments

And I bathed, shaved, did the dishes, had some quality time with the cat plus all of the above in the half hour between when I got up and went through that front door. It's amazing how slow time goes in that first half hour.

posted by y2karl 14 March | 01:15

Stuff like this is why I'm an unabashed y2karl fanboy.

posted by paulsc 14 March | 01:40

I'm working on an audio interpretation of this. I'm not promising anything but this just begs for audio. Someone more accustomed to it is free to beat me to it though.

posted by puke & cry 14 March | 02:01

I absolutely love my early morning starts on the days I'm in the office. Now the weather's getting better, and if I don't have too much to carry, I've been walking to the station. It's a mile, 2/3 downhill in the mornings, walking south watching the sun rise over the Roding Valley.

The birdsong at sunrise is amazing. I'll hear a robin on one tree with a burst of song, then he waits, then another one on a tree 50 yards away answers him, and there's this amazing back and forth 'conversation'. There's blackbirds and thrushes and lots of other birds I don't know enough about to identify.

And I stand on the platform listening to this fabulous singing as people stick their iPods in their ears and cut themselves off from the world around them.

Then it's onto the train, I usually get a seat at 6.15, and within 3 stops it's crammed with coughing, sneezing, farting humanity.

posted by essexjan 14 March | 03:32

y2karl, you write so well. Thanks for this :)

posted by By the Grace of God 14 March | 03:57

I don't wear my ear buds for NPR much when I'm speedmarching these days -- I like hearing the blue jays fussing at me in the woods.

posted by PaxDigita 14 March | 06:40

Note to self: Strive to at least be half an captivating as y2karl.

posted by CitrusFreak12 14 March | 09:20

LOSE TEH FUCKING BLOCK QUOTES!!!

AND WHO CARES ABOUT IRAQ ANYWAY!!!

BUSH SUXX0R NEWS AT 11!!!

WHY IS THIS EVEN HERE>????

no, wait...

posted by matteo 14 March | 17:47

The birdsong at sunrise is amazing. I'll hear a robin on one tree with a burst of song, then he waits, then another one on a tree 50 yards away answers him, and there's this amazing back and forth 'conversation'. There's blackbirds and thrushes and lots of other birds I don't know enough about to identify.

My project these past few years is learning bird songs. I suppose this is another sign of getting old--the birdwatcher gene becomes activated.

But the ways I've learned the songs:

I put up a hummingbird feeder on the balcony of my last apartment and an Anna's Hummingbird, male, staked it out and began to sing in January. Which seemed awfully early to me but then I found out their breeding season starts in winter, at least in the California end of their range.

And since I learned that song three years back, I hear them everywhere each spring and they are everywhere. But whether there's one on every block or there's one every ten blocks, I can't tell. Those are the fastest birds I've seen.

As for song sparrows, I was walking to grocery store next to the library near me one drizzly morning last year and passed this empty lot that's been the subject of litigation for some years now. It alternates between overgrown with weeds to mowed and scraped and has a chain link fence around it.

And a song sparrow flew down and perched on the top of that chain link fence. The sun broke through the clouds for a moment and that sparrow was caught in its beam.

I was so close I could see down its throat when it opened its mouth, see the light glow through its translucent beak and see it look me in the eye. And it just sang its heart out, all the while looking me in the eye, all of four feet away and level with my gaze.

That sort of thing doesn't happen every day.

...So, when I rode the bus this morning, coming over the overpass to I-90, the moon was lower in the sky, the crescent slimmer and the earthlight on the dark of its face. I wonder if I will see it tomorrow.

And the birds were going strong in that courtyard again.

I called every one who I knew had their phone off or had not yet gotten to work and left those birds on their voicemail. And every one loved it.

posted by y2karl 14 March | 23:48

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