Back at my rental house in south San Jose, someone in the neighborhood had moved out last month, leaving the windows open. One of their smoke detectors had a weak battery, and it began to beep once a minute. The house was actually on the next block, there were two rows of houses between us and I could still hear the incessant beep, all day, all night. As far as I know, it is still beeping today.
I am hearing the same beep here at my new house. The first day I heard it I checked my detectors. Nope, they’re fine. The second day, I stood outside to see if I could identify where it was coming from. It was in different places. The third day, I discovered what was happening: it was a bird. One chirp every minute or so, it perched on the birch trees in my backyard and emulated a smoke detector.
Hey, if I’m going to be annoyed, I’d rather that it was from wildlife, you know?
“Hey, if I’m going to be annoyed, I’d rather that it was from wildlife, you know?”
Hidden deeply in that phrase is a run of the mill gay bar joke.