Whoopin' And Hollerin'

Several times a day, as I sit and write, or avoid cleaning, or actually do the cleaning, or as I just sit and watch TV, I hear someone outside whooping.
   For those of you not from Texas or the South in general, a whoop is not a 'yee-haw,' a whoop is the kind of sound you make when your high school football team erupts from behind the break-through and takes the field. It's what you utter when the meanest bull at the rodeo knocks its rider ten feet into the air. It's what you say after the best man makes the toast at an outdoor wedding. It's what comes out of your mouth when the strip club DJ tells you to 'put your hands together for Chardonnay!' At least that's what I understand, from what others tell me. But I digress.
   I hear this man whooping, several times a day, up and down the street out front. And it's loud, top-of-his-lungs loud, loud enough that I can hear it plainly and my apartment doesn't face the street.
   When it first started I thought 'jeez, what a jerk, some dude goes outside just to make noise and annoy the rest of the neighborhood.' But then, as the noise continued week after week, I started to wonder. Who was this guy? What was his deal? Why would he do this most of the day, over and over and over again? How determined was he to be a bad neighbor that he would keep this up for so long? I was going to wait for this guy to start making noise, and then run out and confront him, but that never happened.
   Then a few days ago I saw the culprit as I was pulling out of the garage. Or heard him first, then spotted him. It was the same guy I saw making a break for it a few months ago. A resident of the old folks' home across the street.
   So he's not a jerk, he's an old man with a problem. Either he's got some sort of dementia or he suffered a stroke. Or - terrible thought - he's got both.
   Clearly the nursing home staff take him out many times a day to give a break to the other residents. Can you imagine? If this guy whoops so loudly outside, what's it got to sound like inside? It's got to be driving those poor old folks crazy. Crazier. Whatever.
   But this was a lesson to me, never to assume I know what's going on. I thought the noise was some inconsiderate jerk from the apartment building to the North - they really are a bunch of douchebags - but instead it's a guy who clearly can't help himself.
   Another lesson for me: as dissatisfied as I am with working and writing and trying to make my break, at least I'm not that guy. I should count my blessings more. Grateful but not complacent.