(those are 2 helicopters, not birds!)

For a guy who goes to sleep around 3 AM and gets up at 11 AM today was NOT my day.

It started with 2 lawn mowers cutting grass near my building followed by the leaf blowers. Somewhere along the way one of those loud machines that turn tree limbs into mulch joined the crowd!

While this was going on another machine made its appearance and before I knew it I heard a sidewalk being smashed to pieces. I wasn’t too far off as they were doing something in front of the office adding to the mosaic of din!

Just when I thought that was all the noise that would batter our ears suddenly two helicopters were flying overhead and coast guard boats were roaring up and down the canal! It seems a Manatee with a Life Jacket tied around him. (They don’t think it was done by someone purposely but that had somehow or other ‘dived’ into it and it expanded while on him.) It seems it took them 2-3 hours to rescue him, take off the Life Jacket and let him get on with his business. (It is mating time folks!)

To top it all off, another helicopter, having nothing to do with the Manatee helicopters, crashed in downtown Fort Lauderdale near the Broward Performing Arts Center and Discovery Museum, after taking off from a helipad a block away. Unbelievably no one was hurt, including the pilot!

By now it was 6 PM and I was ready to move to downtown Manhattan in New York City for some quiet!!