I love living in the country. I pay special attention to everything about my environment; especially the sounds. I love birdsong and coyote howls and I’m always alert in case something rare and interesting is afoot.
Yesterday I was in the chicken coop letting the chickens out for the morning. Suddenly I heard the strangest sound. It came out of nowhere. A long low steady wail. It came from a great distance almost as if I were hearing it from underwater. It was clearly not a mechanical sound and must have come at great volume from something fairly large. It was unlike anything I’d ever heard before and I paid rapt attention. The wail played out and was replaced by a much closer sound. Still a low wave sound but with tremolo and increasing pitch. Then it shifted to a higher pitched series of individual sounds with decreasing length and increasing frequency. A lot like when a coyote howls and ends a long croon with a series of yips. Whatever it was seemed much closer; just outside the barn door.
What could be making such noises? Especially in broad daylight?
Then I realized I was on my knees in the sawdust gasping for breath. I put my hand to my head and felt blood.
I’d walked into a low beam and had clobbered myself. My head was spinning and only gradually did I realize I was still making sounds which no human should utter. So much for the strange wild animal.
There’s nothing cool or dramatic about slamming your noggin into a beam and the recovery has been as uneventful as it has been unpleasant. I’ve been living on a steady diet of Tylenol and self-pity. Despite the many times I’ve been accused of it; I am not a bonehead. I wish I were because my skull hasn’t yet stopped aching.
