So that’s what that was…

fennelIt is usually quiet enough around my neighborhood in the pre-dawn hours that I can hear the beeping of the pedestrian signal all the way over at the Jackson / N. Maple intersection (3/4 miles or so away). Sometimes I can hear the Creaky Old Freight Train making its way over the Drop Acid, Not Bombz! Bridge[s], blowing its whistle incessantly as it crawls through town.

This morning? It started with some rather desultory, intermittent honking. Was it a fire engine or some random truck? But why would a truck be honking? There is *no* traffic at that time of the morning. Slowly, almost hesitantly, a siren started up. More honking as the siren became increasingly insistent. Wait? Was that a gunshot? Another gunshot? I didn’t panic. Whatever was happening was happening in the opposite direction than the one I was walking. I kept on walking.

The sirens and honking settled down for a while, then the sirens started up again. This time, it was the orderly sounding siren of an ambulance transporting someone downtown to The Citadel to get patched up.

I didn’t expect to find out what happened this morning so I was a little surprised when someone tweeted a link to this Annarbor.com article about somebody falling through a skylight at an Ann Arbor elementary school. Which elementary school? There certainly wasn’t anything going on at Haisley this morning, which was where I was when I first heard sirens. Oh, Abbot. Just across N. Maple and down a handful of blocks.

I hope this young man is okay. This is the second skylight-falling incident in the city since July, when a Umich student fell through one to his DEATH at Nickels Arcade! I don’t quite get the allure of walking across a skylight but then I’m not a 20-year-old male.

By the way, I have no idea what the gunshot-like noises were. They certainly weren’t related to this incident unless an emergency vee-hickle was backfiring or something. Gunshots are very, very rare in my neighborhood. I wouldn’t be out walking in the dark if they weren’t. Fireworks are another story but not at 6:30 AM. So, I dunno. I wasn’t nervous about those noises this morning and I am not now.

That stuff in the pic is fennel. Mouse came over this afternoon to do her laundry, hike with me, and cook a fennel dish for dinner. She brought all of the ingredients as well as an iron pan to cook it in. We’re having that along with walleye baked w/ almonds and lemon, rice, brussel sprouts (green & purple) and friends, and green salad.

I guess that’s about it. An absolutely gorgeous weekend here on the Planet Ann Arbor. 20,000+ steps each day. Sayonara, –KW.

One Response to “So that’s what that was…”

  1. Margaret Says:

    Could it have been the glass breaking or falling? Hope the young man will be OK. I hate risk taking, so I don’t understand sky light walking either.