Tuesday, May 13, 2008

We Ain't in Arizona No More, Toto

I had always had this idea of the country as a very quiet place. You know, nothing to disturb your sleep except the busy chirping of crickets and the trilling of crazy-happy birds to greet the coming dawn. And then I moved here and realized that though we don't have a lot of human neighbors, there are a lot of furry animal neighbors out there, and many of them are nocturnal. The most notable of these is the squirrel that lives in our attic and frequently gnaws on walnuts at 5 a.m. His favorite dining area appears to be directly over our bed, about 2 feet above our heads. Hate him.

When the weather gets warm enough to open our window at night, we hear a lot more of the great outdoors. Like last night, when we were awakened from a sound sleep at 11 p.m. by a god-awful noise. It's really impossible to describe accurately, but my best adjectival effort would be a high-pitched, rapid-fire, chattering scream. It was LOUD, and it was kind of scary. I have never heard anything like that.

A.* got up and went to look out the window, while I huddled in bed mumbling, "What the hell IS that?" Here's his reply, verbatim:

"Coons fightin' in the crik."

Indeed. I'm a long way from Tucson.

* A. instructed me to inform you that the only reason he was drinking Corona Light is some more sophisticated relatives (hi, Tina and Mark!) left them at our house. He wants you to know that he normally drinks Pabst Blue Ribbon by the 30-pack. And I should add that he used to like to yell at every opportunity, "PBR me A.S.A.P.!" Thankfully, he's stopped doing that, probably because he realized that if he kept saying it, I would never, ever get him a beer again.

6 comments:

SaraPMcC said...

Yikes. Your life is starting to scare me.

krysta said...

i live in the city and we have two racoons that live in our neighborhood. the first time i heard them fight i was just like you. i have an owl that wakes me up at 3 am. i am begining to hate the owl

Anonymous said...

Raccoons fighting is one of THE WORST noises in the world. Once when we were camping, they fought right outside our tent all night. It sounded like a demon trying to pass a kidney stone.

Kristin @ Going Country said...

Ahem, "Moi." I had to delete your comment, because I vowed not to use A.'s or the MiL's real name on here. Or our last name. Not that I think any of you are crazy freaks who might hunt me down! But you might be. So here is "Moi's" comment, re-written to protect the innocent.

"Can I just say that I adore A.? (w/o creeping you out?)"

Yes, you can say it. No, I'm not creeped out. I'll let him know.

Anonymous said...

Yah know if u were deaf like me you would have no problem sleeping through the night. *smirk*

Carolyn said...

"Coons fightin' in the crik."
Funny. I am sorry to say that is something I have never heard. But it sounds awful.

Be careful out there!
Carolyn