noises

 Neighborhood sounds. I have known some unique sounds of silence in Portland lately. The silence between booms of pitched battles downtown, the silence of city blocks locked down for Covid 19, the silence of our streets choked by forest fire smoke. I also clocked the loudness of civil rights struggles, people cheering the medical personnel every day at 7 and of course I have fond memories of how loud our area usually is during times of prosperity. I love the silence and the loudness. I love being a citizen of this city in these times. I eventually loved the loudness I woke to today. Waves of cheering, pots and pans clanging and loud celebrations from the porches. I was pretzeled in with my honey as usual. I didn't know what the ruckus was about. I was actually forming the words to strongly question why my wife was listening to Chinese New Year vids on her phone. Turns out it was our lovely neighbors celebrating the end of the worst leader in our lifetimes. The sounds of cheering echoing through the eddies and shapes of the city blocks made it sound like the whole town was celebrating. Truly an interesting sonic experience. We are pretty happy too. Not for the establishment Dems. They barely won because they really don't represent neighborhoods and families. They won by not being Trump. It's like replacing a despot with a corrupt home owners association. What we are happy for is the beginning of the end of the Covid crisis. Establishment dems are beholden to big biz but thankfully they aren't allergic to science. We all got to see how the Troglodyte prez handled Covid, now we can see some meaningful responses that respect medical and scientific opinions. I'm glad everyone showed what they were really about. Now we need to find a way to educate our people. A large percent of Americans still think what Trump did and represented was just fine. Over the centuries there were tyrants, raiders, the boat people (Vikings) hordes and huns. After the maelstrom the people return to the villages and then the struggles really start, They have to get along with tribesmen who supported the toxic element. There is always finger pointing about who fled and who stayed. I hope we can get passed this and maybe smarten everyone up a bit. Civics are all we got. We need the Earth but the Earth doesn't need us. I hope folks get it together before our species gets evicted. Till then I'm enjoying a cuddle puddle and smiling at the sounds of my cheering neighbors.