Mystery solved, regarding what has sounded to some like an almost-continuous alarm bell/siren-type noise these past few days. Tuesday, we received half a dozen messages from north West Seattle, mysterious because of an absence of any 911 reports of an ongoing alarm-type bell; then we developed the theory it might have been the “shot blasting” technique used to improve traction on two local hills – SW Charlestown yesterday, SW Genesee today – and as soon as we received a noise report from the Luna Park area today, that seemed to confirm it. We went over to the work zone on Genesee and while we couldn’t get it on video, we confirmed that the equipment was making a droning alarm/siren-type noise, somewhat reminiscent of the old “air-raid sirens” we remembered from weekly tests (and are blessed not to have known in any other context) decades ago.