You Don't Know Me, and I Hear Peacocks

UNKNOWN BIO

My backyard is a bird haven with 5 birdbaths (one with a camera), 3 hummingbird feeders (one with a camera), and suet and seed feeders.

Home is my happy place.

I believe in rules and don’t like rule-breakers. Attention to detail matters, and I do my utmost.

Conversations around me distract me, so I confess to being a consummate eavesdropper, to my husband’s annoyance. I can’t listen to him if I am overhearing a conversation through no fault of my own because others are talking loudly. (Remember, folks, you don’t know who is listening!)  

I’ve been to the District of Columbia for work many times, and to 38 of the U.S. states. I’ve lived in 3.

19 countries outside the U.S. found me wandering around, including Germany, where I lived.

Growing up in northern Illinois, I know wind chill, blustery winters, and humid summers. After leaving there for Washington state (the PNW), and colder climates, I’ve acclimated to cooler weather. I don’t like hot, humid weather.

The highest elevation I have been to is 12,810 feet at the Sillustani burial tombs in Peru. I travel to see wildlife and have made it a point to save for travel. I hate flying, but I don't have my own jetpack, so I’m stuck with airlines.

The Home Forum of the Christian Science Monitor published 3 of my poems and paid me for them. ✍️

I miss hard-copy newspapers, and I sent in a Letter to the Editor monthly. 

PEACOCK

The most well-known peacock is the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) logo. Its many versions are memorable; the network has created some themed around events like the Olympics. It now has a streaming channel, Peacock.

Peacock feathers are fascinating, but to me, their voice, like a very large cat screaming MEOOOOW, is more so.

A neighborhood we lived in during the 1990s was about 2 miles from a small zoo. Inside were a petting zoo, polar bears, musk oxen, and other animals. Peacocks roamed with chickens and baby animals in the petting zoo.

From our house, we could hear escaped peacocks MEOOOOWING loudly. Occasionally, one could be seen on a rooftop. Males rip with the spurs on their claws, so don’t be foolish and approach. We once were in France at a perfume factory in a quite small castle. Outside, peacocks were wandering the courtyard. The workers warned us to stay away from them and would shoo them out if they entered.

I used to walk the 640 acres of woods where the zoo sat by myself as part of a volunteer Park Watch. I wrote a horror fictional story about it here:

That story came about because one day after work, I went there to walk. It was winter, and the sun set around 4:45 p.m. I was on the trail, ready to head back to the parking lot when NIGHT FELL. Please understand what that means. It was TOTAL darkness, and I couldn’t see anything. I knew I was on the paved road, but it was dark. I walked faster than I ever had. I never went that late again or made that mistake again.

On one street in the neighborhood, the houses sat on a cliff above the sea. I walked there when it was close to sundown. I distinctly remember seeing two large animals loping toward me. I panicked, thinking they were Dobermans on the loose. I froze in place, waiting. They were deer, and they ran down the cliffside when they saw me.

Better deer than Dobermans or an angry peacock!

               Copyright © 10/27/2026 by Andrea O. Corwin 

This was for Paul's unofficial challenge which has so many parts it is messing with my elder brain. I wrote what I know. It is submitted to Fiction as his challenge says, but it is TRUE.

Sometimes I'm too literal and not as cutesy-original, fantastically fictional, or immensely innovative. Have at it, then!

Amuse-toi bien!