Robbery bungled after warning shot causes stampede

There is a subtle insect sound from the trees that I have come to associate with December in New Orleans. I heard it the other night while I was sitting on the front porch with a light, warm breeze coming out of the south.  It’s a subtle tap-tap-tap that is nothing remarkable in itself, but I’ve never been able to figure out what insect makes it nor how it’s done. It’s just a simple series of metallic-like taps like percussion. The tap slows with the cooler night temperatures.
While I sat there, the pleasantly perfumed scent of the sweet olive dominated. Our sweet olive tree has grown quite large in the 16 years since we put it there. It is filled with tiny blooms. The blooms will continue through the cooler months.
In the back yard, yellow blooms from the angel trumpets that have grown into small trees themselves emit there own version of perfume, heavy and funereal. We did not have a killing frost last winter, so the angel trumpets have grown from shrub-size to tree size. I cut them back regularly to keep them from taking over.
During the day, the area around the angel trumpets hums from the wings of honeybees swarming to its sweet nectar, but that heavy perfume at night attracts night-flying pollinators.
I made photos of the bees in those blooms and plan to make more of the other flowers in coming weeks, but photos don’t do justice, nor would a video. The setting is best appreciated live, in person with one’s full synergy of sensory sensation engaged.
Later that night there would be more sounds — sirens nearby. F and M Patio Bar and Grits Bar would both be closed for Christmas Eve night, so patrons from near and far rallied en masse on the night of the 23rd into the morning of the 24th.
A neighbor who roams nearby streets during early morning hours carrying a bag of damncat food on a feeding circuit, provided us a second-hand account as told to her by Guy, the security guy who pulls late shift for the two bars.
Some armed miscreant had walked into F and M with the intention of robbing the patrons. In the din of such revelry he had difficulty in communicating his intentions to his would-be victims until he pointed his handgun at the ceiling and fired off a wake-up shot.
The gunshot got their attention but not as he had expected. Everyone bolted for the door in such a rush that they ran over the thug in their rush.
Also run over was Guy the security guy who had been outside patrolling when he heard the shot and had attempted to run inside to find out what was happening. He met the crowd of patrons making their hasty exit.
That was what brought all the police sirens early Friday morning.
But on Christmas day we parted that near-tropical setting for Milwaukee for a visit with Eli, the Star Wars guy. We have swapped for cold, messy, dirty snow dumped by last week’s winter storm, but locals are reveling in today’s forecast for sun and a high of 46 degrees.