Sounds of a Suburban Summer

During much of last week, and even part of the weekend just passed, workmen were making some noisy repairs to the school behind my house. This made it hard to enjoy the deck during the many warm moments of recent days, but today I found out that the work seems to be done. I enjoyed the quiet on the deck for a while in mid-afternoon.

Except that it isn't quiet out there. Just not noisy to the point of distraction. The cicadas have woken up, or hatched, or however they appear, and are buzzing. At least one is up in the honey locust that shades the deck, and others aren't much further away. Fireflies are thinning out, but the cicadas have arrived. It's the beginning of the end of summer.

Kids were also in the distance, making childish noise, yelling, laughing, talking. For a minute or two, a half-dozen boys on bicycles rode by on the other side of our fence. I couldn't quite understand each word they said, but it sounded like the things boys say to each other.

Every few minutes, a large airplane crossed within view, on its way to O'Hare. These large planes aren't close, but you can hear their roar off in the distance. Much closer are the little planes headed for Schaumburg's general aviation airport, but there aren't as many of those. The distinctive outline of a lone Cessna buzzed overheard for a minute or two, and was gone.

Normally we barely hear it, since it's so ubiquitous, but concentrate and the sound of traffic is all too clear, though not oppressive, from my deck: the mutter of engines, the burr of acceleration, and the swish of vehicular motion.

Sometimes I heard dogs growling and yapping in the distance, and occasional birds make themselves heard, though it wasn't really the time of day when they're most inclined to sing.

Finally, least noticeable of all, but there all the time, was the low hum of the school's HVAC, which must have its emphasis on the AC on a day when it's nearly 90 degrees F. It's probably programmed to keep the school below a certain internal temp, and you can hear it doing its job whether anyone's there or not.