The sounds of my new home

Any move includes a lot to get used to. The layout of the new house, the resources in the new town, the accents and social mores... right now, all of it is the same and oddly different. Kansas City isn't so different from Boston, yet it's a world apart.

I thought it might be interesting to think about the parts of my home that are new to me in sensory terms, describe my new world with images you can consider. I thought I would start with sound.

1. Helicopters. My old house was on a very quiet street. This street is also quiet, however it's spitting distance from a teaching hospital, one of the better medical facilities in the area. Every day I hear helicopters, bringing people in for help. In Boston, I lived under an occasional flight path for jets approaching the airport, so the distant roar was familiar. Now I'm getting used to the Apocalypse Now sound of rotors.
2. Dogs. There are a lot of dogs in this neighborhood. They like to talk to each other.
3. The accent. A lovely, twangy, slower cadence of speech. And boy, do people like to talk here. 
4. The furnace. The heat in this house is forced hot air, propelled along by a talkative furnace. Clearly, it's from Kansas City, talking. It rattles and chatters to itself as it warms us.
5. The music. In Boston, when a car drives by with loud, basey music, it's often hip-hop. Here it's country. No less loud, no less basey. 
6. And, oh, the trains. Kansas City is a freight train hub. At night I hear the long mournful wail.

All of this is to say I like it so far and am enjoying observing the differences. Soon enough these differences will be every day and familiar, so I wanted to capture them while I could.

Up next? The smells of my new home.

(c)2012 Laura S. Packer