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.

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

Cough, Round 237

Ugh. It's back. The cough. It's driven H to sleep in the baby's room, driven me to sleepless nights and I've driven myself to the doctor's office to plead for some codeine relief. Nothing works.

And on the nothing works front, we awoke to some veery interesting noises coming from our heating unit this morning. Short answer is that sucker is slowly dying. To the tune of lots of dough, since the builders in the early 80s in their infinite wisdom wedged a large heating system into a tight closet, leaving no room for said units to become obsolete and need to be replaced by bigger/different sized things. Such is the way my Thursday is going. This day can't end soon enough.

All the King's Men

In many ways I feel as though I shouldn't be complaining. There are so many who have far more serious issues surrounding bridges and construction in this country. That being said...

Our complex has exactly one entrance/exit. I've lost track of exactly when it started, but crews have been repairing the bridge that crosses the (fairly small) river that sits right next to us. It's a mammoth job and while all the heavy equipment and noise has created no small amount of amusement for a two year old who loves anything on wheels, Mommy is really ready for this to be over. Thanks to the newspaper I now know that this millions-of-dollars project will not be completed until next summer. Not this summer - next summer.

Our entrance/exit sits at a bend in the road that cars tend to travel too fast. Trying to leave on a good day often results in taking a deep breath and simply ramming your car out into the traffic flow. I'm actually happy to see the local cop when he decides to park in the drive across the way because traffic actually slows down, and maybe some of the speed-demons might actually get a ticket for their troubles. When they cut down some of the trees to make way for this project it actually increased the visibility which was great. The visibility promptly decreased again when the trees were replaced with various cranes, bulldozers and heavy trucks - not to mention the personal cars of all the construction workers that have decided to park lining our entrance/exit.

I've been trying to hold on, thinking: Hey. Town improvement and all that. But next summer? I'd like to be agreeable and feel that progress is being made, but there are whole stretches of time where no work at all is being done.

All this promises to be even more fun when the New England snow finally descends and the snowplows are looking for somewhere to pile everything that has just been shoveled off the roadways. Yes, my idea of fun is to take your life into your hands every time you try to leave your house. Just one of many reasons that it may be time to move.