Noises

I can hear one of the groundskeepers (alas, we do not have any bizarre/comic folk working as groundskeepers a la Groundskeeper Willie) raking up leaves in the front yard of my building. It is a skritchy sort of sound. It's kind of sad, in a way - the realization that fall is over and it's time to get the leaves out of the way. It's a metallic sound, too - he must be using a metal rake.

The local public schools are out, and although none of them are over here today, yesterday the guy who has the office below me had his two young sons and the woman down the hall from me had her teenaged grandson in her office. In the afternoon it got a bit annoying - the grandson's voice is changing and he was talking LOUDLY about the video game he was playing. And sifting up from below me, the sound of quacking. Apparently the little boys of my other colleague had some kind of duck toy that made noise. The quacking wasn't so bad, though - just a little surreal.

I can usually hear the soft thunk of doors opening and closing through out the building as people go into the restrooms, close their office doors, come through the Fire Door Do Not Prop Open! doors that are at the end of the hallways and that lead onto the stairwell. I can also hear people clopping up and down the stairs, and if a woman is wearing clogs or high heeled shoes, I can hear her coming down the hall. (I hate it in the summer when those Dr. Scholl's slides are popular - the thunk-slap, thunk-slap sound of women walking around in them. I often have to close my office door if I need to concentrate.

I went over to get a flu shot this morning; they were offering them in the student union. Waiting there was a small knot of students passing around a loud iPod that sounded like it had music from cartoons on it. I think they were theater students, judging from their discussion. I'm not crazy about sharing my personal space with someone else's music but this wasn't as bad as it sometimes is. (What I really hate is when you get the duelling iPods where two or three people are listening to different things and they keep turning it up louder and louder to drown out the others). I do think I will find out the name of a leading hearing-aid company and invest in them; I see a big boom in the next 30 years of people needing hearing aids from iPod and Walkman induced deafness.

I can also hear, when it's quiet here, the soft churning sound of...I think it's my computer? I guess there's a fan in there that runs quietly, that seems to be where the sound comes from. Sometimes the fluorescent lights buzz a little but they aren't today. And the clicking of the keys as I type. Sometimes I can get into a rhythm, especially when I enter data 10-key style. I remember when I was a grad student I was amused to find that the rhythm I was tapping out on the keypad as I entered data reminded me of the old early-American hymn, "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing."

(Most of the songs I know well, and have nearly instant recognition of, are old hymns).

And now I hear someone turning on the water fountain down the hall, the sort of soft "clank" of the bar being pushed in to turn the water on.

More movement in the hall now - it's approaching class time for the 10 am classes and so I can hear the shuffle and plod of students slouching down the hall to class.

Something's buzzing now - I don't know if that's the heating system (which isn't really on yet) or what.

And more feet in the hall, and the scraping grind of the shredder doing away with something...probably one of the faculty disposing of the draft of an exam.

And now - now I will not hear any of these soft sounds, because the dreaded leaf blower has come out and I can hear its staticy hum - not unlike a distant hair dryer - coming through my window.

Sometimes it is pleasant to just sit and receive the sounds - to note each one, to catalog where it comes from, to be aware of them.