A Beautiful Annoyance

I've been meaning to talk about this for a while.

See that gorgeous creature we like to call a peacock?

Well, that creature ain't so gorgeous when it's squawkin' in your very own backyard.

Every. Single. Night.

Why this thing's not in a zoo, I couldn't tell ya. What I can say is that months ago, we were greeted (or rather, awakened) by an obnoxious and unidentifiable noise. A squawk, if you will. Living in the valley, where coyotes, rattle snakes and the occasional stray dog roam free, my family and I figured this was just another bird sent to our neighborhood purely for annoyance purposes. After all, why else would a squirrel croak in our pool? These sorts of things happen here.

Unfortunately, this was not an isolated incident. Instead, this anonymous bird thing became a loyal visitor.

Every. Single. Night.

I get a call from Liza one day, and in lieu of hello, I hear this.

"I know what that noise at night is! It's a PEACOCK!"

"A what?!"

"A PEACOCK! I was driving down our street and it crossed in front of my car!"

And so it was. A peacock in our backyard (or somewhere around there, as we'd never seen it up until Liza's epiphany). To make sure this was in fact where the noise was coming from, I decided to Google what a peacock sounded like. The sound byte that came through my computer speakers was all too familiar. And that was that. A peacock it was.

Not too long after that, our prayers were answered. The peacock squawk, as I came to call it, came to a delightful halt.

Thank Allah, I thought. It came to its senses and galavanted back to the zoo.

For about a month, the neighborhood slept peacefully in our peacock-less little enclave.

Until it didn't. It was my mom who delivered the alarming news.

"The PEACOCK's back! I saw it near our street again."

Crap.

And so, if you're ever in the neighborhood one fine evening, it's entirely possible you hear any variation of the following:

• Shut up!
• Go back to the zoo!
• Ugh, be quiet already!
  

And now you know why.