Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"[...] what happens very frequently, our goals change during a war. The one goal which, George Kennan I quote saying in the book. The reason that we go in is often forgotten, and suddenly the goals become something like maintaining our dignity. Keeping up our international authority. Preventing a loss and the damage such a loss will do to our international profile. In other words, they all become I think what rhetoricians call heuristic. They're about the mission itself, not achieving anything else." -- Mark Danner, on the PBS television program, Bill Moyers Journal, 2009-10-16

I was asleep. Then suddenly I wasn't. I was unasleep in a distinctively "did I just hear a loud *bang* or did I dream it?" manner. Which was quickly resolved as I heard s succession of additional *bangs*^[1], a pause, and then several more, with curious !tinks!^[2] between some pairs of *bangs*.

I wasn't sure what I'd heard, but I knew it wasn't an empty semi going #boom!# over the dip in the intersection. And was -- am -- a bit disconcerted that ... well, I haven't spent much time around firearms and haven't heard many spent cartridges hitting the ground, but my musician's ear says that if I wanted to reproduce that particular !tink! in a recording studio, I'd start by dropping hollow brass cylinders about a quarter inch by an inch, onto concrete, and then start varying the size and material based on how close that first attempt was.

Unsure of whether what I heard was gunfire or some other explosipercussive sound, I was concerned enough to decide that the police ought to figure it out, and called 911. A few minutes later, there was a police car stopped slantwise in front of a mobility-services van; a few minutes after that, an ambulance appeared, and a minute farther on, folks bunched up on the sidewalk at the corner, watching. I don't see any brass from my window -- if it was spent casings making the !tink! sound, would I have heard those from around the corner? They sounded much closer than that.

Anyhow, I'm awake now (far too soon, since breathing difficulty kept me awake until three hours ago). I need to fetch more cough syrup and a few other things, but I don't think I'll try to get moving just yet. Maybe after the police/medical vehicles are out of the way. (Not that I really want to get dressed and go out at all.)

This particular kind of excitement, I really don't need any day.

[1] Well, more of a *po'angp* or maybe a *pANGop*.

[2] Most definitely !tink!, about halfway between !tik! and !tingk!.

ETA @ 13:50 -- Removing any lingering uncertainty as to what I heard ... now yellow tape surrounds the whole intersection, a police car blocks my street at the far end of the block as well, and a bunch of uniformed officers are walking up and down in the street and on the sidewalk, staring at the ground. So I guess the !tink! sounds I heard were from my street, not around the corner, after all. (*Bangs* echo too much to really be sure anyhow, in the city.) I guess the brass just isn't shiny enough for me to spot it from a second-floor window on an overcast day.