Member-only story
Getting Close to Silence
Lawn mowers and motorcycles
It has been getting rather quiet in my neighborhood lately. The biggest reason for this is the empty streets. There is very little traffic. Usually there are almost always cars and trucks and motorcycles that can be heard but now there are long stretches of time when not a single vehicle is on the streets.
While walking yesterday I came to the four-lane highway that is just three and a half blocks from where I live. As I was trained to do as a child, I looked both ways before walking across the highway. To my shock there was not one single vehicle on the highway as far as I could see. I do not recall that ever happening before.
And I did not see any people walking around either. The town looked utterly deserted. I felt like I had slipped into some heavenly dimension while also feeling like I had slipped into some post-apocalyptic scenario where humans no longer existed. It was weird.
This morning I was luxuriating in the silence (all I could hear was birdsong) when some human started up a gas-powered lawn mower somewhere about two or three blocks to the west of me. (All my windows are wide open.) It is a faint sound but as this person is now mowing their yard I find the noise very soothing — almost hypnotic. I am really enjoying it.
