I and many others (possibly hundreds of people) woke at 7am on Monday to this unbelievable sound:
The man is blasting a foghorn and announcing that all vehicles on the street must be moved lest they be towed and ticketed.
The same drill occurred on Friday, though I was unable to capture the sound that day. On Friday the bullhorn announcements and the air raid siren seemed to go on for many minutes, though I was stubbornly asleep during most of the performance. In my half-awake, puzzled state it made sense to imagine that Astoria was being occupied by an invading force. Before I could clearly hear what the man was saying I thought I heard the word “CITIZENS!” which, combined with the alien sound of the man’s voice, made me think the communists were rolling their tanks up my street.
Alas, the street is being re-paved, and on account of the work that needed to be done all cars had to go away. Signs were posted by the D.O.T. but they were not put up sufficiently well in advance for many car owners to even see them much less heed the directives. The signs say that vehicle owners will not be penalized for violating this temporary order, but the man with the bullhorn threatened that all will be “towed and ticketed” if they do not get their asses out of bed and behind the wheel of their car immediately.
And, vehicle-owner or not, everyone in the vicinity got to enjoy this obnoxious early-morning sound blast. It looks like we might be in for an encore performance tomorrow, too, since no work appears to have been done on the street re-paving today.
It’s just one more reason for me to savor not owning or being responsible for a vehicle in this town. I had one for a few years but have not missed it one whit since selling it to a friend.
