Noises

I recently noticed a new rattling sound coming from underneath the car. I suspect the heat shield is loose. If you have to have a car problem, Loose Heat Shield could be a good one to have, because, I’ve found, most repair places will fix it for free.

A few days ago I was in the car with my husband. I said, “Do you hear that noise?”  ‘

“What noise,” he said, turning on the radio.  Yes, it was a statement, not a question indicating curiosity, alarm, or any reaction whatsoever.

“That rattle, when I accelerate. I think it’s the heat shield.”

“No,” he said, cranking up the volume on the radio, “there’s no rattling noise.”  He’s always telling me the things I hear are in my head.  But the last time I heard a weird car noise it turned out we needed the wheel bearings replaced, which I understand is fairly serious if left unfixed.

Yesterday I got home from aerobics, got out of the rattly car, and noticed the sound of a typewriter coming from the next-door neighbor’s yard.  I imagined telling my husband I heard our neighbor, whom I shall call The Widow Douglas, typing in her back yard, and I imagined how he would tell me it was all in my head.  The Widow Douglas is an older personage, but still unlikely to be using a typewriter, especially outside. 

Unlikely to be using a typewriter, inside or outside.

I looked more closely, and spotted this bird, pecking away at a thoroughly dead stalk.  

Do you see it?

Now can you see it?

These are the dead stalks that The Widow Douglas has to look at every time she pulls in her driveway. She is sad enough at the passing of her husband two years ago, and I am inflicting further grief on her with these plants.

           

The bird kept pecking away furiously.  I was immediately filled with gratitude for my food procurement method, which seems tedious, but is much preferable to repeatedly banging my nose against dead cellulose in search of a few bugs who managed to survive this summer’s heat.

Feeling triumphant that

a)  the typewriter noise was NOT all in my head;

b)  the noise was not coming from the chipmunk gated community;

c) the noise was not caused by a vile scary creature like the attack rabbit or gaboon viper I fear lurk in the yard;

I went inside to grab my camera.  I managed to get a few mediocre photos of this amazing example of how nutty evolution and/or God is (depending on your viewpoint) for making creatures that find food in this manner.  Then the bird flew off.

This Attack Rabbit lives in our yard.  The yard also harbors a snake (not pictured).

I decided not to tell my husband about the typewriter noise.  Even with photos, he might not believe me. 

The car’s rattling noise has gone away.  But I think I hear a drip inside the bedroom wall when it rains.

I'm glad I don't have to shop at THIS grocery store.