Spring - Loaded

H and I spent a lovely Saturday evening recently, eating dinner out with some friends, a couple we have been trying to connect with for months. We finally met up for dinner, courtesy of some babysitting from my parents/Grandma & Grandpa having driven in from Wisconsin for a visit.

They departed, and H and I were spending a quiet evening at the computer and curled up with a book respectively when:

BANG!

I remember feeling puzzled - peeking in on Daniel to see that everything was OK. I finally settled on feeling annoyed, assuming that one of our condo-neighbors had left late and inconsiderately slammed the door.

The next morning, H discovered that one of the massive springs that move the garage door up and down had broken. Sounding like a gunshot that shook the whole place! I'm certainly glad that I wasn't in the garage at the time. Who knew those things could go like that?

We've had a few warmer days here recently. Teasers of 50 degrees or so, that feel gorgeously like Springtime. While we have retreated again to colder temps, it's not quite as bitterly icy as before. I'm holding on to those wafting bits of warmer weather, coiled and waiting for Spring.

Sounds Like...

(beep, beep, beep - insert backing truck here.) Isn't it amazing? Some sounds are wonderful and precious. Daniel's first laughs that never failed to crack us up. We termed them "laugh in a bag" because of the indefinable quality that made him sound like he was making noises with his head in a paper bag. Even though he, of course, wasn't. All this past week I have been listening to the beeping sounds reminiscent of a reversing truck outside our condo. Except that it is some sort of construction crane that just beeps constantly and is making me crazee!

Some sounds you can just tune out. My apartment in Boston came complete with a squadron of bats that flew around outside. Their high-pitched squeaks were oddly comforting. My parents' first place when they moved back to Wisconsin had a pond out back, and night would fall to a symphony of frogs. I'd stay up listening out of amazement. I still get a little thrill out of picking up the phone to find H on the other end. And who hasn't been comforted by the sounds of a crackling fire in the fireplace or awed by the BOOM! of fireworks on the Fourth of July?

Wish me luck. Today we're listening to a wood-chipper outside our place.

*******************

My first giveaway! Head on over to Relishing the Dirt. Contest ends October 16th.