The Quiet
The streets of the world are still, other than the occasional idiot who decides that the chance of driving 95 mph down the center of New York is just too good to pass up. Citizens look out their windows, astonished, as distant hills come into view, the waters of Venice and Paris are looking weirdly like rivers, and goats are trimming the village hedges in Wales.
My house is on a hill.
I live surrounded by trees, my driveway has been taken over by a flock of turkeys, and the neighbors’ driveway camera filmed a trio of mountain lions strolling past. So it’s quiet, sure–but I hear the freeway. It’s the one thing I don’t like about living here, that constant hum. I don’t see it, I don’t smell it, but it’s there, from five in the morning until late at night.
Not this month.
This month I have to actively listen to be aware of freeway noise. And in a happy-Easter Zoom meetup with my English family, those who live under the flight path to Heathrow said that it’s weirdly quiet, like the days after the Icelandic volcano when workers at the Manchester airport held a football game on the runway.
I miss things, yes, oh very yes. I hate not snuggling with the grandkids, not meeting a friend for coffee, not going to events that celebrate the book. Though I am so very grateful that none of us are ill, that we don’t have to line up for free groceries, that none of us work in a hospital. And I’m about to start writing the next book without a study (which is currently our community workout studio.)
Wish me luck.
So, how are you doing?
We had constant traffic noise when we lived in the Chicago area and we still have some here in Arizona, but not as much as there will be eventually. We’re doing well, as we can get out to walk in the morning (me) and cycle (my husband.) I’m thankful for e-books that I can check out from the library, but I’m also getting ready to unpack as many of my own books (including all my Russell and Holmes books) from the moving boxes, so that will be lovely. Plenty of post-move organizing, etc. to do, so no problem staying home most of the time. I look forward to getting a mocha and sitting outside and going to the library in person again (a new library, so fun there.)
Lovely photos, BTW.
Stay well!
janet
Bless the libraries, now and always!
Laurie
There’s a piece of me that keeps thinking, “look how empty it is! I should go and not be faced with crowds of people!” We were planning a trip to Portugal to leave today, and while there wouldn’t be any tourists, nothing would be open anyway, so that bit of my brain goes quiet again.
It is nice, on the occasions I have to go out, to not have to fight the traffic.
So many small reminders of what we give up every day, in our “normal” lives. Please, may we remember these things, and make some changes when we crawl out of lockdown? Please?
Laurie
I’m re-reading Justice Hall, seeing the people who celebrate COVID-19 as a lead up to the end times, and hearing ‘Woe unto you who desire the day of the Lord.’ I don’t suppose you could have had any notion of how apropos that book is now.
I’m afraid there’s rarely a time when “Woe unto you” isn’t appropriate…
Keep safe,
Laurie