Noise

There is a common misconception that the country is peaceful and quiet.  This is simply not so.

When I first went off to college, I thought I would never sleep again.  Even though the college I went to is considered rural, I was not used to all the people and cars.  The noise after dark: flushing toilets, talking in the hallways, the cars (and their stereos), not to mention the singing drunks, fighting drunks, and stupid drunks.

Germany was “my” first duty station when D joined the military.  We lived in an apartment building…or a “stairwell” with 5 other families. We lived on the second level so we shared all our walls except the front and back.  Actually now that I think about it, this was not much different than college, except there were more domestic violence issues. 

Now, of course, we live in suburbia… so it has gotten quieter.  Now we have the guy (I’m assuming) that has a really loud stereo that drives by @11 pm each night that shakes the house.  We have car alarms, barking dogs, the quarry, and the nearby artillery ranges that knock pictures off my walls.  And of course we still have the singing drunks (but they are kind of growing on me).

Here we are on vacation in the country, what could be worse than those things?   Since I’ve not lived at home for many years, the noises that I used to be able to sleep through, I no longer can.  Like frogs…they are loud.  Last night, D and I both woke with a start to what sounded like your typical loud drunken party (with slightly more screaming than normal).  I immediately recognized the sound, but reminded D that it was coyotes and not something worth getting out of bed for.  And let me tell you roosters have NOTHING on peacocks.  Seriously…..  If you’ve never heard a peacock it is a little difficult to describe the noise they make,  a little like  “ah-ell” but long and loud…really loud.  And not just one at a time either.

There is really only one cure for sleeping through the night in the noisy country, and it is exactly what my boys did yesterday.  What my parents do every day.  My mom would call it work but my dad and my boys call it play.  They played all day long, mostly outside.  And as H said this morning “I didn’t even SEE the night.”