Thursday, January 8, 2009

living.

I live on the line between suburbia and country. When we first moved here, five years ago, I would wake up to cows mooing. The road just east of us housed parading peacocks and every Sunday morning turkeys could be found strutting on the road to the west.

More houses have been built and more cars are on the road. The turkeys are no longer given free reign on the road. The peacocks prefer the backyards of the new neighbors. And I can no longer hear the cows from my bedroom.

But one thing has not changed. Weekend mornings, periodically throughout the day, I hear what sounds like a firecracker. Or a false starting car. For five years I've reasoned that this was the sound of someone fixing their car, or using leftover fireworks.

No. I've recently learned the truth behind the sound. Gun shots. Close gun shots. Evidently living near a lake brings animals... and the hunt.

I was always one to assume that laws would prohibit hunting within a certain range of a house. What do I know. My neighbor reports seeing people with rifles going through our subdivision's park to access the wetlands.

Now that I know what the popping means, I'm alert to the sound. One night, I heard what I thought was a gun. 11:00 PM seemed a bit late for the hunt and I was freaked out. Asking another neighbor if she had heard the shots, I learned something...

Setting off fireworks can quiet a barking dog. My neighbors' solution to the noise.

That's the life between suburbia and nature.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! Where am I in this neighborhood? I only hear my OBNOXIOUS neighbs after midnight! No fireworks, guns, just partying. Where am I?!

Jacks said...

Serious, it took me a while to notice. I used to have party neighbors too. Perhaps I didn't notice until the party left my cul-de-sac.

Judy Tan said...

I live on the line between sane and insane.

Amanda said...

Gotta love the idiosyncrasy you find with in one small neighborhood. You sound as if you have more than your share!

Jacks said...

I know the sane/insane line. Pretty well.

Sherry Carpet said...

stay alive, my friend. stay alive.