Last year some of the work had to be done between 2am and 4am for safety reasons – not a good idea to have heavy duty jackhammers going while a subway car is trundling underneath. No notice of the work was given, and we found out about it when the neigbourhood was jarred out of bed. Those responsible for the lack of notice were scorched by the neigbourhood so badly that this time we were given plenty of notice of the work which started this week… or was it last week… lack of sleep tends to do things to your memory.

All week we’ve endured, construction during the day and then the 2am wakeup call. It’s not just loud, it’s rattle you out of bed loud. It’s actually quite funny in a sad, perverse way. Neigbours now greet each other with “did you get any sleep?” “I wonder how long this will go on for” and my favourite “at least the (insert favourite invective) gave us notice this time”. Ah but last night there was NO construction. No trucks, no jack hammers, no little bobcats roaring around tearing up the lawn. Oh sweet bliss. I woke up around 3am and thought “what’s going on”. It took a few minutes to realise it was silent. I snuggled back under the covers and thought oh how wonderful! I know they are just lulling us into a false sense of relaxation. They will be back. But in the meantime, I’ll enjoy the quiet.

Sigh…

Because I got such a wonderful nights sleep, I’m going to reward you… with a claw:

From Catpaw’s Art work – birds

I looked and didn’t see this in a previous post. I’ve been paying pretty close attention to claws … or are they feet?… so I can bring more realism to my birds. It’s paying off. It’s hard to see the feet in most photos, so if you see someone in a cafe peering very, very closely at some bird legs, that’s me. Gotta go…time to work so I can buy more art supplies… and lattes…and bird photos….and dark chocolate m&ms ….

HOLY CRAP… just a sec… here they come again. Well no wonder they sound like they are about to land – in all the years of seeing aircraft fly past, I have never seen jets so low over the city. And… it’s not CAF… it’s the US NAVY!! The jets are so low, roaring over the park, I can actually see the numbers on the jets…and one of the silly buggers waggled his wings as he roared over our apartments.

OI!! Flyboys!! You owe me for the latte I just spilt when you buzzed my apartment. Should I send the bill c/o Blue Angels? I want a super large latte please, with lots of foam.

They are buzzing other parts of the city now – show offs! Nothing worse than a jet pilot.

Welcome to Toronto USN. Hope you enjoy your stay… but no more bouncing off our roofs please.

To make matters worse, there is all this construction going on in the neigbourhood. Endless jackhammers and trucks. They start, in theory, at 8am. In practice they sometimes start as early as 7am. Even on Saturday I can hear them banging away.

First it was road repairs, then one new condo just down the street. They did beautiful job on the building and it adds a nice element to the area. I like it a lot.

Then just as that condo development settled down, a new one started up – and these are the cheapest, ugliest townhouse/condo’s I’ve ever seen. I watched as they were built and can’t believe how crappy the job has been. Each condo has been sold for over 1/2 a million dollars. I read their brochure and figured anyone buying these condos were being taken for a ride by the developer. The back of each condo faces right smack into an apartment building on the same lot. Each morning you can throw back your curtains and look straight into someone’s apartment. Nice. Know what rates as a technology feature? “white toggle switches and matching  plugs”. Sorry folks, the basic light switches and wall plugs, in plain white, are not technology features. They are required. Seriously, when was the last time you moved into a place and had to ask for the light switches and plugs to be installed because they were a “feature”. No, not a feature, a standard required item here in Canada.  As the summer progressed, I watched in utter horror, as the construction crew put up boards that were crooked – the outside walls showed gaps of up to 3 – 4 inches between the boards and the outer frames. It looked like some of the boards were nailed to the insulation. And when we had rain, the warping on the same walls was shocking. If I can see this from the sidewalk, how bad is it really? Latter the workers came along, threw up some pieces of wood to fill the cracks and then put some bricking over wall. Can’t you just see the problems in a few years?

That entertainment is nearly over, they are just about ready for occupation.

While this was going on, subway repairs were carried out. The huge trench is still out there. The repairs that were supposed to take a few months have now dragged into over a year. Every once in awhile someone comes along to pump water out of the trench. Usually a some ungodly hour, with a very noisy truck.

Oh and the city is ripping up the newly repaired road again. Nearly 2 weeks of jackhammering, pounding and grating. Keep in mind this is a major road here in the city. As a result, drivers are impatient and all we hear from 8am to 10am and 4pm to 6:30pm are horns and screeching brakes.

I forgot, the city has been tearing up the sidewalks in the area as well. Oh.. and the street car rails have been torn out and put in twice in less than a year – the noise from that was unbearable.

I guess I’m being cranky today.  It was a bad weekend. Now I have to go out into the rain and cold. Could be worse. I could have to do this with a migraine. Guess I should consider myself lucky. I’d rather be crabby.

Yes I am being cranky about the entire issue. But look at it from this point of view – why should I be subjected to your taste in music. Today, thankfully, no rap is playing. Don’t start b*#tching and complaining about my narrow view – I don’t like rap. It’s not to my tastes. I find it noxious and increases my sense of anxiety. All that bass pounding at me puts me into a very aggressive mood. I have the right to dislike a particular style of music without being verbally taken to task for it. I don’t expect you to listen to Mozart or Joan Baez, so don’t expect me to listen to 50cents.

I feel like I’m in my own little world here, with my earplugs in. I can hear everything that is going on around me, its just muted. Unfortunately, there is way too much bass and I can still feel it in my chest. Can sound waves cause a stroke in cranky cats? I’ve been eavesdropping on a family of whinney, cranky annoying kids – parents are crass and spoilt, children are moaning and complaining. Geez why do parents indulge unacceptable public behaviour. Oh wait! I know! Because they are behaving the same way. I stick to my original statement today that humanity has slithered down the pipeline of insanity.

I think I’ll go to the bakery and get my bread and scones for the weekend. The whining is beginning to wend its way through my ear plugs. Can whining cause your ears to bleed? I don’t want to stick around and find out. I may get cranky all over their spoilt butts

“Catpaw”, I respect your comments, but please appreciate that a world in silence would be a rather boring place. Right?

Go to NYC for a while, and try and complain about the noise there. I think that once you travel more, you will realize that Toronto is a very frigid, sterile city where its inhabitants tend to isolate themselves in their “quiet”, as you put it.

I am a jazz musician, that was playing the TD Downtown Festival, and the sound levels were pretty tame compared to say…New Years eve?

Also, I think your comment about rap music is rather ignorant and uneducated. Very few people in the world these days (especially in Toronto) understand that there are two basic types of music. Composed (meaning everything is written before), and improvised (meaning that there are components that are made up on the spot). There is a very strong connection with rap and jazz, based on rap’s roots (jazz/blues/funk) combined with the frequently improvised lyrics.

Anyone that has any knowledge with spoken word, and improvised poetry, understands the validity of rap. Not all rap is about “bitches and hoes”, and ignorance is what spreads that stereotype.

You are obviously entitled to your “quiet”, but the rest of the world is also entitled to hold events (such as the TD Downtown Festival, and New Years at NPS) that cause many people joy and appreciation. And I don’t think anybody in the audience wanted us to turn down.

Thank you

I don’t think this person understands that when I say quiet I don’t mean silence. There is a world of difference between the two words. I enjoy the various events and enjoy the ambiance of some neighbourhoods – and yes I’ve been to NYC and many other places including Hong Kong, London UK, Barcelona, Germany, Netherlands, across Canada, United States, Mexico, Cuba and more. My complaint still holds. Simply because I object to the rising noise levels does not mean I’m a person with little or no experience in the world. I want the sound levels turned DOWN, not OFF. In the past 20 years the levels have risen steadily. I’ve been in some places where the music is so loud, everyone felt the need to shout at each other. I want to sit and enjoy myself without being deafened by the sounds around me.

Music is everywhere, whether we like the tunes or not. Music is a very personal taste. I don’t enjoy having it thrown at me from every store front, every car, every Walkman, every cafe. Go to the grocery store and listen to the rehashed music screaming from the ceiling speakers. And yes, some music I genuinely don’t like. It feels like I’m having dental surgery without the pain reliever. It is silly to expect everyone in the world to have the same tastes in music – now that would make for a “rather boring place” indeed. Does everything have to be ratched up so loud? Our hearing is at risk in some of these places.

Before you say anything further, understand this – I worked in an alternative rock radio station for about 10 years. During that time, I realised the sound systems were gradually going up louder and louder as the hearing of the sound men deteriorated. I started taking ear plugs with me to events after leaving some concerts and events with a ringing in my ears. On one occasion (in NYC) the buzzing lasted for 3 days.

I like jazz, I especially enjoy improvisational jazz. Have listened to it for years. I enjoy it more when the amps and sound systems are left out of the mix and I can actually hear every sound and cheer coming from the musicians themselves. Amps drown out the warmth. Makes everything ‘sterile’. Quiet doesn’t mean cold and sterile. It just means I don’t have to listen to your music or shout to hear myself. Cities are busy and filled with their own rhythms and sounds. We don’t need a soundtrack to follow us around all the time. I was in the audience of some of the TD concerts and found the sound levels disturbingly high in a few of the events. Lowering the sound does not mean turning it off.

People are afraid to ask for the volume to be turned down. We are treated as though we are party poopers. As though we don’t enjoy music. No, we just treasure our hearing. Civilization survived for many millennium without amps and speakers – the music was no less enjoyable, society no less sterile.

I stand by my call for a quieter world. Enjoy your music unplugged for a change. Hear the lyrics, hear the sounds, enjoy, but don’t force me to hear 6 competing songs at a time. This extends far beyond music – it extends to the increasing noise pollution that surrounds us and is making it difficult to maintain sanity.

Thanks for sending in your comment. Again, I hope you don’t mind that I posted it. It was too well written to ignore.

1. People with the biggest Potbellies – well this one has me stumped too
2. Elle Magazine – don’t think they were expecting my tirade about the actor, the women and the wipes
3. crossbones binky bling – I hope to heavens that they weren’t expecting to purchase one of these noxious things
4. controlling angry cat – I’ll bet they were suprised! My mom has tried for decades with bugger all to show for her efforts
5. “alex Stoner” Oxford – did someone really type this into google? or are they funning with my brain
6. hover furniture – HAH! I knew this was a winner
7. no child ever grew up wanting to be an accountant – I can’t stop laughing at this one. Nearly spit my coffee through my nose over it
8. bi-focals – make one tiny reference to bi-focals and look what happens. Hope I helped them. Somehow I don’t think so. If one mention of bi-focals gets me a looker, than what happens if I write the word bi-focals numerous times? Talk about a link out of context. Just how deep did they have to troll before they found me?
9. angry cat mp3 – nope, can’t sing. Trust me you don’t want to go there.
10. world to much noise and sunday noise toronto – sounds like many folks are fed up with noise.

My favourite has to be ‘People with the biggest Potbellies’. And who said the Internet isn’t educational?