Hoot

Every so often, I can hear an owl outside my bedroom window. Now, I like owls well enough, but it's incredibly annoying to wake up to the sound of one at 4:30 in the morning, especially as this particular owl doesn't just hoot a time or two and then shut up.

No, it repeatedly hoots the same rhythm, at about the same interval, loud enough to wake me through the closed window, and doesn't stop for at least 30 minutes. The rhythm is syncopated, involving dotted eighth rhythms and a tie.

Seriously, this is what runs through my mind when rudely
awakened at 4:30. Hey, let's figure out the rhythm of the owl's
hooting!

It happened this morning, and because I'm me, of course, blog inspiration struck. I took a video (yes, it's dark, but it was 4:30 in the flipping morning!) to demonstrate just how obnoxious my new friend is.

A friend on Facebook told me that in Native American lore, owls are considered omens, usually for some big life change or disturbance. Well, I've heard this particular owl before, and the only disturbance I've had as a result is in my sleep.

I don't know why my friendly neighborhood owl found it necessary to wake me at 4:30--but I stayed awake, so out came the iPhone for some don't-wanna-leave-bed entertainment while Millie figured out that I was awake and howled at me, asking why I wasn't jumping up to feed her.

I used this time to impress my Twitter followers with my impressive musical vocabulary. Who else uses words like "ostinato" (that's a short, repeated pattern, which is exactly what my owl was doing...for half an hour) in everyday conversation? Music nerds, that's hoo.*

*See what I did there?

Should my nocturnal friend return tonight, I've been advised that shining a light at it might get it to shut up and leave. I have nothing against owls, I simply want them to keep their hooting out of the tree next to my bedroom window.