Syncopation

I started this post on 12-7, and then the sun came out for a few days, so I forgot about it.  But we are just now in the process of moving out of our little concrete box on the third floor of the Condominio Ramon Munita.  Before we go, I want to report my frivolous ideas about the tintinnabulation of the raindrops in the courtyard of this building. 

Here's the view from the far side of Avenida Ramon Munita.  Our little pad is on the far right side of the center red section, third floor.  The big window is our living room, the smaller one our kitchen/laundry area.  Our bedroom has a window on the inner courtyard.   

The next photo is from the near side of Avenida Ramon Munita, my view as I return from the Lider grocery store next door.  Those dogs are drinking from what's left of the perennial puddle on the corner ... usually it is more lake-like, extending well into the street. 

Our bedroom looks out into the courtyard ... a very plain place, all paved in concrete.  When the days are sunny and breezy, the courtyard area sports a dozen or so clothes drying racks of every configuration ... and there are seven or eight potted plants along one wall, not really thriving, I'm afraid.  

This courtyard is transformed, on rainy nights, into a phenomenal orchestra of water sounds, and I wish I could describe what I hear.  We have had PLENTY of rainy nights in the last month or so.  I've been studying the music.  If I was a good reporter I'd have gotten out of bed during one of those symphonic events to prowl around out there in the courtyard making notes on the sources of the key sounds.   Cadence and volume of the sounds, I believe, are determined by the size  and frequency of the leaks and dents in the gutter/drainpipe system.  Tone and melody are possibly determined by the quality of the material the water strikes.  

For instance, in the photo above you can see a greenish stripe against the wall in the sunshine.  Someone, maybe a resident who loves to eat clams, has started a seashell collection here.  Parts of that stripe are really dense with seashells.  I believe the gutter over this strip is quite thoroughly ventilated with leaks, and when the rain is really coming down, the clatter and clack of water hitting shells reminds me of lit strings of firecrackers, or the popcorn exploding in the microwaveable bag. 

Again referring to the above photo, notice the first floor awning over that courtyard entrance to the shared stairwell.  I believe that awning is a simple fold of tin, quite melodic when played by the team of dribble, drip, stream and sprinkle emoting from the gutters above.  

Rain on concrete is fairly quiet, I think, except where the concrete is hollow underneath, like it is beneath some of those courtyard tiles.  I don't know what's under that orange-colored panel on the ground in the photo ... plumbing of some kind, maybe.  And what notes are contributed by the satellite dishes?  

I thought about getting out of bed to pay closer attention.  Instead, I remembered the sound track to that funny cartoon film, The Tripletts of Belleville. Triplets of Belleville   I bet the composer had a window on a rainy courtyard.