Coronavirus Quarantine Diary: Day 74, Entry 18, Howlers, Singers, Soccer, Birds and Squirrels

The bird I've unimaginatively christened, Red.

At 8:00 every evening my neighborhood is subjected to the sound of people howling like coyotes. I understand that this occurs in other neighborhoods throughout the United States. I'm ready for it to stop post haste and indeed have been since the night it started. The howling -- in addition to being a rude interruption to reading, watching a film or engaging in conversation -- serves as a nightly reminder that we are in the midst of a pandemic and are sheltering in place. I do not need this reminder. The howling also suggests that humankind is not that far removed from wild beasts. Recent actions of police officers, racists and the president are sufficient to drive this point home. So, yeah, I hate this baying at the moon business. It does not build a sense of community (there's but a few loud practitioners in our area) but it does annoy the hell out of me.

We also have on our block a few souls who gather every day at noon to sing. In principle this is not a bad idea. In practice it is another annoyance (though not so loud as the howlers) as the sound they produce reminds one of a wolverine being choked to death. We are relieved of this caterwauling on Wednesdays when our neighbors stroll up the block to a bigger gathering of "singers" including denizens of other blocks. Thankfully they are too far away to offend our ears. The singers on our block mostly in their fifties and sixties. Maybe older. The sound they produce (which we really don't have to deal with provided windows are closed) is bad enough, but they accentuate their amateurism by swaying and sometimes even dancing along with their tuneless vocalizations. Again this is easily avoided by drawing the shades, so I've really nothing to complain about. Indeed one should probably compliment them for finding a way to maintain a sense of community during the shelter-in--place order.

A few weeks ago I was able to start getting a sports fix as the German Bundesliga (my favorite name for any league of any sport in the world) began playing again. While my great love is for English football (soccer to you Yanks) the German game is, like the Italian, Spanish and to a lesser extent, the French, a decent alternative. But of course they are playing before empty stadiums and the absence of crowd noise is just plain weird. Imagine watching a comedy special on HBO or Netflix in which the comedian performed before, well, no one. Especially odd is when a goal is scored. The excitement is not nearly the same when there is no roar of the crowd accompanying the goal. A few days ago I watched a match in which they played recorded crowd noise over the sound system. Whoever was in the control booth was able to masterfully and quickly switch from general background noise to whatever sounds would accompany a particular situation such as a goal, a near miss, a nasty foul or a sudden counter attack. The English league is scheduled to re-open on June 17th which will be a huge improvement for me as I'm much more familiar with the teams and players and more emotionally vested in the results plus, of course, I'll be able to see my favorite team in action (Arsenal). I still wait with bated breath for news of college football in the Fall although it is difficult to be hopeful of it being anything at all like the normal deal.

Meanwhile the wife and I continue to enjoy the company of the birds and squirrels that congregate on or around our bird feeder. It's been sad to note that a couple we got to know is no longer together. There were two birds, one red-breasted, that were frequent diners, always arriving and leaving together. "Red" continues to avail himself of the feeder but his partner has not been around. Are they Splitsville? Is she ill or -- heaven forbid -- deceased? Is she visiting family? Maybe it's just a trial separation. We also now have three different squirrels who visit. We've taken to putting a lot of feed on the ground beneath the feeder so they can feast there instead of going through all manner of contortions to eat at the feeder and in the process keep the birds away. One of our new furry friends is a little chap with a copious appetite. He's more fearless than his older counterparts and does not scare easily. I've got to get around to naming the bloke.

So other than all that business about howling and singing and the lack of sports and missing birds, I'm fine.