Night before last a noisome and remarkably loud thwip-thwip-thwip sound developed somewhere in the vicinity of our apartment. It started just before bedtime and persisted for hours. The sound was new, its source not readily identifiable.

R. even commented on it--and he doesn't mind noise.

I thought the source was rain draining from one of the many makeshift water-draining apparati on one of the many makeshift eaves of our house.

I decided to ignore it, and was successful in doing so for a while. (I don't wear earplugs at night because I'm uncomfortable blocking a major sense while unconscious.)

But at 2:30, when awakened by an apparent volume-increase, I decided to investigate.

This involved retrieving the mag-lite from the kitchen drawer, pulling on my jacket and sandals, and venturing out into the lovely still, clear, damp full-mooniness of early morning in the Richmond District.

Once outside, I determined that the source of the thunderous thwip was one of our neighbor's eaves.

There was a car in their driveway, nearly flush with the garage door. The thwip in question occurred when water hurled itself from the roof of said neighbor's house onto the hollow-most portion of the car hood.

For several minutes, I stared up at the eave and down at the car, which was covered with drops, trying to locate the exact source of the thwip and its point of impact.

Then--suddenly very aware of how odd I might appear to anyone who happened to be looking--I decided to retreat to the house in search of a muffler.

This I quickly (triumphantly!) discovered in the form of an unused natural-fiber doormat, which I slid onto the hood of the car and folded several times until the thwip was successfully abated.

At dawn the thwip had disappeared entirely, along with the car and the doormat.