Songs in the night

It is not quiet at our house. Indeed not. A few years ago, two lanes were added to the highway by our house, US 60, which is the main southern east-west corridor in the state from Oklahoma through Missouri, and it joins up with US 63, which is a north-south route for a while so that people can head on down to Arkansas, Tennessee, and points beyond. It’s the main route to Branson. And there is a lot of traffic on it. And the two new lanes didn’t go on the other side of the road.

Oh no.

They came on our side. Up until then, there was sort of a hilly area between us and the highway that was very overgrown with trees and brush. We basically couldn’t see the highway, and it served to buffer the noise. That was all ripped out and graded away, and now the road is basically in our back yard. And there is nothing to block the sound. There is actually less traffic noise at my folks’ house in Los Angeles, which is only separated from the Harbor Freeway by two houses and Hoover Street and a tall “sound wall.” In addition, that noise is a constant low hum, instead of here, which is periods of no traffic noise at all and then bursts of sounds getting...

louder...

louder....

louder....

and

fading...

fading....

fading...

Silence for a minute or two, and then here comes the next truck or group of cars. And have you noticed how the cars seem to travel in large groups with gaps in between?

During the day the traffic noise is not such a problem.... What am I saying? Of course it is a problem!

“Leilani, can you....” muffled unintelligible sound...

“What? I couldn’t hear you. A truck was going by....”

But it can be hard to fall asleep at night sometimes in the summer with the windows open, which is necessary because we don’t have air conditioning. And it would really be a problem if it weren’t for the singing insects filling the gaps between cars with their songs. My favorite is the katydid.




I love the song this insect makes. Anyway, the trees where they hang out are close enough to the house so they are loud enough to be heard over the sounds of engines...