New Noises of the Night

In Brooklyn, night noises were everywhere. And they were so ubiquitous that it didn't take long for them to fade into the background before they disappeared altogether.

Now I have a new set of noises to get used to, although admittedly these are already so soft that little acclimatization was necessary.

The first noise I noticed at night were the insects -- luckily outside the house and not inside. We live in a decidedly urban area, so I was startled by the constant hum. But not disappointed. I like the sound.

Traffic is no bother here at night. You can just barely hear the cars rush by on a nearby highway. Garbage trucks here roll by once a week in the morning, not nearly every night in the middle of the night like in New York. The only giant truck I've seen after nightfall was the one delivering our furniture.

But for every noise that's been taken away, a new one has taken its place. Now we have old-house sounds. The worst are the squeaky floors. Although that obviously isn't an issue only at night, that is when it becomes a problem: Edith has been known to wake up as you unsuccessfully try to tip-toe out of her room.

The most surprising noise, however, are the trains. I didn't even know there were tracks within an audible distance. But I actually like listening to the chugga-chuggas and blasting horns, even in the middle of the night. They aren't so noisy that they wake me up, but just loud enough to remind me of the ship horns I used to hear blast in the bay in Brooklyn.