Beware the Sigh-reens

 The coyotes were having a right good time of things, yipping and yapping, yowling not howling and I asked why.

"Why what?"

Why make all that noise when a siren goes by?

"Siren!? That was a Siren?" Coyote looked especially nervous, scared even.

What's wrong with you now? You look like you saw a ghost.

"Might as well have! Those things lead coyotes to their deaths!"

What?

"What?"

I thought for a second before it dawned on me I was being duped and rolled my eyes.

He noticed; "what's that for? I'm serious"

Sure you are, and I rolled my eyes again. I don't know where you heard that old myth, but Sirens don't lead coyotes to their deaths, they lead sailors to their deaths.

"In all of history there has only ever been one coyote sailor, and he..."

what?, was lead to his death?

"Now that you mention it, yes. I guess we're both right."

What?

"What?"

Oh, whatever. Look, that wasn't a Siren anyway. It was a siren, like on an ambulance or fire truck, you know an emergency vehicle.

"Ohhhh, you mean siren," (and he pronounced it "sigh-reen," I assumed to distinguish it from Siren). "I've heard of those. Is that what they are? Huh! I'll be."

You're telling me you didn't know that was a siren - oh, excuse me sigh-reen? What did you think all that noise was then?

"A group of coyotes passing by, of course. They're being courteous, kind of like saying hello, 'we're just passing by'. We're just answering, 'sure, go for it, safe travels'. That sort of stuff, you know."

I didn't know. Honestly I never know when Coyote's pulling my leg or telling the truth.

With that I got back to the ride, although on this night there would be no "up and over loop" - it seems as though a couple different agencies had turned the top of the dam in to a filling station. I wonder if that is going to be a somewhat regular thing this fire season?