It is 10:30AM on July 30th, 2023. There is a morning chill as I swing on the patio in the shade waiting for the sun to warm things up. The fog is sitting just off the coast at a level where it is blocked by Montara mountain and so opens up a nice oasis here in Linda Mar before encroaching farther inland a bit north of here.
As I get older I find I prefer silence with sounds of nature being the only exceptions. I find myself complaining about noise more often and as I mentioned in a few posts ago the noise compelled me to finally buy noise cancelling headphones. I wish I could say I was simply enjoying the birdsong here on the porch but there is some machine producing a grinding sound like a rusty motor in big need of maintenance from my neighbor or two doors down.
There is always noise coming from that direction these days. Our new neighbors run a daycare and I learned that daycare kids and staff NEVER stop talking and are lucky if they can go an hour without some kid crying. One would hope that on the weekend there would be quiet, but no, they are running some machine that makes a loud grinding noise.
Well, I had to know what it was and so peered over the fence. My neighbors have bought a medium sized above ground pool and must be filling it up. Given the size it should take at least half a day so there goes my peaceful morning. I’m not a vengeful person but I have a few thoughts of simply getting something that makes constant noise and direct it towards their property.
That constant noise almost drove me inside but this is a good chance to try out the noise cancelling headphones and am surprised by how well they work. However, now I’m on my patio in the absence of all sound except for a very low whisper of the sound I’m trying to eliminate. I had to sacrifice my birdsong along with other morning noises which also detracts from the ambiance.
I’m a bit sad that my summer travels are over. It wasn’t long ago that I was sitting on the porch swing in Ohio with my nephew. I told him I really enjoyed all the lush greenery, a wonderful variety of birdsong and the general pleasantness of the environment. I had to make a conscious effort at mindfulness to really soak it all in. Soon, I would be thousands of miles away and then on the other side of the planet. It was surreal to be saying that but now it has happened. I came back to SF for a week and then was in Japan. That whirlwind of an adventure is now over and I’m back on my porch before we get into the routine that occupies us for most of the year.
That awful noise from my neighbors have now stopped and what do I hear? I hear the hum of aircraft large and small, the soft woosh of cars in the distance along with their motors if close by, a firetruck siren has just started to blare and there is the very soft roar if the ocean. I wish we as a society paid more attention to creating a pleasant ambiance. Unfortunately lawn care and people causing accidents will always ensure a motor is running somewhere and somebody usually did something stupid to injure themselves.
The immediate question is what to do today? Part of me simply wants to sit on the patio and finish reading my book. However, if I do that my boys will just sit in the house staring at screens all day long. But what to do? They aren’t overly eager to put down those devices and so I have to give them a choice of options of which they’ll choose the one they object to the least. Yesterday we went metal detecting. Today we could go on a hike, bike riding, boogie boarding at the beach, or maybe even to the driving range? Or perhaps, we could get a workout in our home gym?
Unfortunately I don’t feel excited about any of those options either but the pressure to get my boys away from those screens usually compels me to do something that requires movement. On the other hand this is one of the last remaining days before we pickup routine again so perhaps doing nothing at all is the right decision? It would be easier if there was something we were all very excited about doing but that isn’t the case.
Well, time for me to put down this screen and either pickup my Kindle or tell my boys we are going to do some sort of activity.
