Things I’ve Heard From Our Balcony

 

Someone playing a trumpet! For a few brief and wonderful moments, I actually thought I was in Berlin listening to our regular musical visitors. Then the very un-Berlinish crosswalk signal down the street began beeping and I remembered that we’re now back in the US where we rarely hear music on the street. It’s likely that the unseen trumpet player is a busker down in front of the Metro station a few blocks away, but that doesn’t really matter to me. I’m okay with letting a little musical mystery back into my life…

A rather angry squirrel barking at some unseen threat.

Overgrown tree branches scraping against the window of an apartment in the building across the street.

An extended set of really, REALLY loud male sneezes.

The local high school’s marching band practicing its halftime show out on the football field a few blocks away.

A spirited, high-volume rendition of the Rocky theme by a twenty-something guy running down the block.

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Things I’ve Seen From Our Balcony

Armored car guards picking up a deposit from a nearby restaurant.

A wasp nest high up in a tree across the way.

A group of very loud, very official (possibly even Presidential?)-looking helicopters.

A large group of children playing a swimming-pool-free variation of Marco Polo in a nearby courtyard.

Workmen using our balcony as a staging area for repair work on a balcony a few floors above.

A very flattened blue-striped work glove, obviously run over multiple times.

Crows, or maybe ravens? I don’t know which but I would like to because sometimes they quite companionably hang out on our balcony railing and I feel it’s rather rude not to know their proper name. I’ll try to get a picture and then maybe you can help.