Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"Did you know that winged unicorn foals make a kind of warbling chirp when calling out to their mothers?" -- siderea, 2005-06-27

[And a happy second annual LiveJournal Rabbit Hole Day to everyone, also. I was amused when, upon being reminded that Rabbit Hole Day was drawing near, I realized which quotation was already scheduled for today.]

Haven't felt awake enough to tackle a Rabbit Hole entry today, sorry, but tonight's looking strange enough on its own..

This afternoon when I moved the car, folks across the street were painting windowsills, so I said hello. They thanked me for calling in the attempted burglary, and said that the police came by that afternoon to take a statement -- that makes the police response about twelve hours after the 911 call -- and that it was the third/fourth/fifth such incident in the past few weeks and yeah the cops are being pretty much useless.

This evening I heard sirens, but the ratio of fire engines to smaller vehicles was wrong for that many sirens, and it sounded like they stopped nearby. Sure enough, Lombard St. is blocked off from the far side of Monroe (a block away) to at least the street after that, and there are ambulances and police cars. The trees are placed just inconveniently enough that even with a 300mm lens I can't see what's going on or get a good count of the emergency vehicles.

While I was leaning out my window, distracted briefly by watching a fiddler get into his sports car (I hadn't known any of my neighbours were musicians, but that was definitely a fiddle case with a bunch of pages stuffed into the half-open side pocket -- and now I know which house the curvy, silver, low-slung two-seater belongs to) there was a screechTHUMP in the direction of the lights & fuss. Two cars had collided in the left lane of Lombard St. Dunno whether one was trying to avoid suicidal-pedestrians -- I saw folks cross the street right there as soon as I turned at the noise -- or did something strange on realizing the flashing lights meant "straight ahead is closed", or what.

I guess either somebody must have died in whatever that big collection of emergency equipment was responding to, or a police car crashed ... because the Channel 2 news van just rolled up, and this neighbourhood ain't impo'tant enough fo' da evenin' news otherwise. (The other clue is that the police cars got there about the same time as the first ambulances.) Now I think I hear a helicopter, but it's not close enough to be sure yet. Seeing whether the van raises its antenna mast will be another clue (unless I decide it's worth the trouble of putting clothes on and walking over there to satisfy my curiosity -- I've been feeling crappy enough lately that doing so may well be just Too Much Trouble). I guess I'll watch the Channel 2 news instead of Channel 11 tonight.

Life in the city. Wheeeee.