The Noise Pollution in our neighborhood.
Holy cow is it noisy here! There is some serious construction happening all around us. Our once pretty quiet street has become a super highway in the past few years. There are townhouses and houses going up all around us, in fact we are 1 of the 3 remaining property owners on our block (and ironically we're all lined up in a row....like ducks.......sitting......waiting.....). The few original houses that are still standing are renters and the rest have been bulldozed to the ground. Which brings me to the noise pollution. It starts every morning at 7:00am on-the-dot. The endless back-up alarms, beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep. Yes, Mr. Bulldozer we see (and hear!!!) you mulling around the construction site, right along with your friends Mr. Excavator, Mr. Roller and who could forget Mr. Dump truck? The also endless rumblings along the entire block that feel like miniature earthquakes from machines digging and pounding the earth. The incessant squeaking of brakes from said dump trucks loading and unloading dirt. We live about 500 yards away from the site I speak of, so it's not like we can just close the windows and not hear any of it. The noise is there whether we like it or not. And I don't like it! There have been days when they've started at 6:00am and man is that a piss off! The next time that happens I will be calling the bylaw office because I just found out recently that they are not allowed to start until 7:00am. But seriously, that doesn't make much of a difference when the flatbed trucks are delivering machinery to the site before 7:00am, now does it? Oh hey - I'll answer that - NO! Add the speeding cars, motorcycles, you-name-it on the street and it's a real loud place. Darn our bedroom for being at the front of the house!
So basically, the sleeplessness which has been occurring for the past almost 4 years now is showing no signs of slowing down. Because the building is going on and on and on. For at least another year, anyway, which is how long this annoying project is supposed to go on for. They've cleared so many trees and houses that when I look across the street I can almost see what the people are eating for dinner in the next subdivision. The distance in between is a vast empty plain of rock, dirt, property stakes, hideous green utility pipes, plastic orange fencing, rubble of all sorts.
And the poor wildlife.....it's quite sad (yet somehow beautiful at the same time) to see all the rabbits, squirrels and occasional coyote in our yard. Where else do they have to go?
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What's up with Fairy Tales, anyway?
Have you read a Fairy Tale recently? I mean, since you were a kid? Why don't I remember them being so politically incorrect and down-right scary?
Like The Gingerbread Man - I'm reading along to Benjamin, not a worry in the world; it's a story about a cookie, how bad could it be? I had absolutely no recollection that he gets eaten in the end! I was totally shocked. And Benjamin was kind of startled (the picture is a little harsh) so I just made it fun - oh what a lucky fox, he gets to eat a cookie! Yay! Yum, yum.......geez, Louise, what was I supposed to do? Run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!
And how about Jack in the Beanstalk? Poor Jack is called "stupid" a few times in the version we have. We say "silly" instead. Maybe that's wrong, but Ben is only 3-1/2, I don't particularly want him to be introduced to that word quite yet. Jack's mother makes derogatory comments like "oh Jack, how could you be so stupid?" (to swap the cow for beans) and how the townsfolk think Jack is too stupid to get a job. *sigh*
Even two of the Three Little Pigs are referred to as lazy in our storybook. I just skip those lines altogether. Who needs that?
Luckily Benjamin enjoys all of the Fairy Tales that we read to him; scary, politically incorrect or not, his favorite being Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Now there's a nice story. Nothing scary, no one is being called stupid or lazy, it's just good clean porridge tasting, furniture breaking, bed swapping fun (umm, that didn't sound right...). The bears don't do anything to Goldilocks; she just runs home, they just make more porridge and get along with their day.
Now why can't we all do that?
