Sights and Sounds of Boston

For the most part, I like living in the city. I walked to work today. It's about a 10 minute walk, and my path happens to goe right past my favorite bakery. Today I held myself back, but yesterday I emerged with a lemon ginger scone. It's a beautiful thing to be so close to everything.

Living in the city is nuts. It's like watching the world from the inside of a snowglobe. People, cars, ambulances, animals, all going this way or that. I get to see a whole bunch of sights that are outside of my sense of normal.

A few highlights... The woman who walks her cats everyday around 5:00. The St. Bernard leashed to the bakery door every morning. The elderly Chinese woman who goes through my trash every trash day looking for cans. People of all dress and manner waiting on the bus, some of which are seen running toward the bus at the last possible minute.

BUT, living in the city comes with its own set of problems too. And city problems usually relate to sounds. I've come to not care about the sound of traffic. The occasional squeal of tires and the resulting "f--- you" heard above the clatter doesn't bother me anymore. Neither do the ambulances. I find their presence somewhat comforting. Even the occasional car honking doesn't annoy me much anymore. Actually, now that I don't drive in Boston, I find the traffic somewhat comic. It's like bumper cars where you try not to hit one another.

The sounds I really can't take though, are car alarms. The other day at work, while scavenging for chairs for my classroom I unwittingly set off the building alarm. I didn't realize it, because there was NO sound. Why, in God's green earth, can't people figure out how to make a car alarm that only disturbs the person who owns the car? Three, yes THREE days in a row we've been awakened to the same car alarm going off at 5:30am. The first day it not only went off early, but whoever owns the car didn't turn it off. I'd say it went off for a good 15 minutes. Seriously, can't they just make an alarm that calls the guy's cell phone and disables the car? If the guy breaking in wants a radio they're probably going to grab it despite the noise, right?