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June 10, 2005
Noise
I've turned as many of the machines in my apartment as I can and it is still amazingly noisy. The fridge is throbbing; the freezer is emitting some sort of wavering buzz; this computer is whooshing; the PVR is whining. I've turned off my air conditioner too but I can feel the drone of my neighbor's. One nice thing about winter: it's a lot quieter. No A/C, of course, but also not as many people out on the streets; nobody on patio's whooping it up. At the moment I'm even bothered by the cats chewing their food. Obviously, I'm going to have to get softer food; or pre-chew it for them. A nice quiet blender would help with that.
I'm always preoccupied with noise; most often the noise that other people make that infiltrates my home. I don't mind people being out there but I don't like to hear them. Especially when they're having sex. Especially when they're having sex and I'm not. One of my previous neighbors had a loose headboard that used to hit the wall when she and her boyfriend were getting randy. I was always impressed with the nice rythmn they would get going. Fortunately, they took no longer to finish up than the average and I was back to my blissful silence after a very few minutes. There was an intention to mention that loose headboard to her but somehow I could never broach the subject when I met her waiting for the elevator. "Nice day." "Yes." "That elevator sure is noisy, isn't it?" "Yes, sure is." Following that up with "I noticed you had sex last night." just didn't seem to work.
This apartment is actually quite a bit noisier than I expected it to be. I thought the higher you were up, the quieter it would be. The opposite seems to be true. My theory is that on the lower floors the sound bounces off the other buildings and cancels itself out whereas up here where there are no buildings for the sound to reflect from we get the full dose. I'm not sure about the validity of that but it sounds impressive when I suggest it to people. It seems to suggest a grasp of physics and sound waves which never fails to impress. I don't let people dwell on it too long before mentioning that it's pretty common to see naked people in the buildings across the street. Nakedness wins out over physics every time.
Posted by John at June 10, 2005 07:11 PM
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Comments
I once got lucky and found myself in an apartment where the silence was overwhelming; it was almost painful. Then I got unlucky when I moved and had to listen to the guy in the apartment above me pee. I'll take silence over noise anyday.
Posted by: Janice at August 7, 2005 08:34 PM
I'd take anything over having to listen to someone peeing everyday...
Posted by: John at August 7, 2005 11:23 PM
Oh I don't know about that. I can think of other things that might be worse to have to listen to every day then someone else peeing. ...my landlady practicing violin for one thing. *shiver*
Posted by: Kerry at August 11, 2005 10:10 AM
At least hearing someone playing the violin doesn't make you want to play the violin...
Posted by: John at August 11, 2005 11:06 AM