Road Noises

My favorite route for walking (which I need to do more of) is a lap around the Post Office-Franklin Woods Hospital-Knob Creek Road complex in the Med-tech Corridor. My pedometer says I am 1/16 of a mile short of two miles. Three uphill portions and some refreshing downhills of course. First thing in the morning, lots of street traffic.

But today I got to noticing what I might hear instead of road noise and air conditioning units. From over by the Wellness Center I could hear the whine of the lift gate. At the eye surgery I could hear the greetings of the people stationed at their entrance to check in patients. They instituted a one-way drive pattern to help enforce rules about patients coming to the clinic.

Along this corridor, cars and light trucks zoom by. That noise for a moment tends to overshadow all others and only when the cars are not present do other sounds sneak into your hearing. If you’re listening.

I can hear a woman’s voice and notice she is speaking to someone in a car in the parking lot at the bank. I don’t hear the other person. A few bird calls make it from across the street to my side.

I think a lot of us do not attempt to discriminate about what we hear, or see, or say. We talk in generalities--some of them good and some of them mean--but we do that because taking in details of everything living, breathing, or noisy would be too much for the brain to handle. You don’t pay much attention to the sidewalk (unless you suspect it’ll trip you) so that its grey goes into your eyes but your brain doesn’t worry too much about it. In that one example we also don’t appreciate our extraordinary sense of balance and timing that keeps us from sprawling so gracefully. Same lack of definition is how we sense the trees and clouds. Or bird songs. Or people, sometimes. Sadly.

We pay attention to dogs because they pay attention to us.

If all we did was concentrate on our hearing we’d walk into a fire hydrant. If we paid attention only to the clouds we’d probably get run over. I’ve read that the euphoria of smoking dope concentrates your brain on one general background, making it special, at the risk of running your hand through the saw. Too much trash talk is why we change channels when a campaign ad comes on the television.

I can hear the chatter of some birds in the quiet times. Then another growl of a diesel on the uphill grade. Some cars really are quiet. There is concern that the electric cars will be so quiet pedestrians will be a some further risk by not hearing the car approach. The answer to this will be interesting.

On the short chute along Knob Creek there is much too much traffic for anything else to filter through. That section along there gets really busy at times and as the Med-tech opens for business in the mornings there are plenty of cars squeezed into a short stretch of street. The set-back from North State of Franklin to the Med-tech corridor street is as short as Tennessee Street from Walnut to South State of Franklin. And I suspect for drivers just as frustrating. Maybe this is a sign our little town is growing up.

Out on the long straightaway that parallels North State of Franklin, heading towards the post-office turn, I can hear a dumpster being emptied at one of the restaurants across the road. I wondered for a second about what its decibel rating would be for that lid to clang closed if I can hear it so far away but only at a moment when the traffic is lighter.

You can certainly tell the difference between a Harley and a crotch-rocket where State of Franklin rises up towards Indian Ridge, without regard to direction. The turbo bikes really scream. They like this long stretch of roadway. This is not new to any of us, of course, but it’s fun to listen rather than watch. Diesel pickup trucks like to show off their prowess along here, too, and are successful if only because the semi-driver has nothing to prove and so little open road to prove it on.

Back along the corridor from the post office to Franklin Woods the road is rougher and suspensions squish. There seems to be a slight variation in the sound the car makes as its suspension travels. As if the traction to the pavement also changes ever so slightly which makes for a momentary change in its sound.

No one is mowing right now. Few people are out this morning. A couple of “good mornings” is about it. Our part of the world can be very noisy which makes me wonder how people respond to the quiet up on Roan Mountain? Do they notice? I have at times here at my house when the appliances are off, the mowing is done, everyone is someplace else, noticed a bit of almost unnatural quiet settling in.

I’m lucky.
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