Urban Crickets
I’ve occasionally thought that car alarms are the urban equivalant of crickets.
Today was the Day of the Crickets.
Several times a day, I find myself having to walk from one set of allegedly temporary buildings (trailer modules) to another set of allegedly temporary buildings. It’s a short jaunt–no more than a few hundred feet–that rounds the corner of a parking lot. Every single one of the twelve times I was outside today (six round trips) a different car alarm was going off. It was like stepping in and out of a John Cage version of the Ring Cycle. I had no idea that there were so many versions of car alarms. In addition to the standard, ceaseless honking (you know, the kind that makes you want to scream “I’ll give you something to honk about” and pitch rocks through windows) there was one that sounded exactly like an ambulance siren, one that played the same four bars of a tune (the name escapes me) and an utterly random honking pattern. Speciation happening before my very ears…
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June 24th, 2003 at 8:51 pm
I think the answer is spray paint, myself. Untraceable, if you do it quickly and scram.
I think “SHUT UP” in nice large letters across the front hood should suffice. No need to be vulgar.
June 24th, 2003 at 9:01 pm
I tend to refer to car alarms as car mating cries. (Originally Japanese car mating cries, because I remember when American cars didn’t have them. I feel old.)
Maybe they were all lonely and looking for a little hot automotive love.
June 25th, 2003 at 3:16 am
I think you may have the start of a good horror movie plot here.