Screech and Squeal... Life living on a Busy Corner

Life on a busy corner since moving into our cottage has been anything but boring ( or quiet). There is never a lack of cars, trucks, buses, and people bikes, walking, pushing strollers, and rolling by on skateboards, and it seems to go on 24-7... I know this because I do not sleep well and no matter what time I get up at the wee hours of the night there are cars and or people going through the four way stop at the corner we live at.  I met our neighbor yesterday, and she said we sure did take a leap of faith buying a home on a busy corner..... understatement from my point of view.  One thing that is hardest to get used to is the fact that it is never quiet. Four lanes of traffic one way and two the other, and being the main way to to many places in the city we now live in makes for a lot of traffic.  I am not sure I shall ever be able to tune it out completely. So I am trying to figure out, how as a person that is VERY sound sensitive and can get overwhelmed by constant influx of noise can deal with it all on a constant basis... that might take some time. Of course we plan to make every effort to make sound barriers and pray that they work ; fences, shrubs, sound deafening curtains are in the future. 

Some of the various vehicular types that are passing by my window on and off all day are every size, shape and description of delivery trucks. We are surrounded by large box stores, from grocery to furniture, the local post office, places to eat, and a large variety of shops, repair shops and  so many other little holes in the wall places to buy everything you can think of, each receiving deliveries. I have found I am learning what is in my area without even leaving the couch, simply by looking out the window and watching the trucks drive by.  

We have a bus stop right across the street from the house. So many times a day the bus stops and drops off and picks up a variety of characters , some I am now starting to recognize as neighbors and others I never spot again, making me wonder where they are headed "just this once" . There are buses that drive through and never stop , it seems one every few minutes. Some empty, and some filled to the brim heading to destinations all over our city and cities near by.  There are times I wish I was brave enough to hop on one and just see where it would go. Learn about the people that ride them on a daily basis and hear their stories. Other buses pass by as well, school buses. I love seeing all the cute wee ones with their back packs and lunch boxes, bringing back memories of when our own girls took the bus to and from school, as well as my own years of doing the same. 

We live walking distance from the Police station and with the regularity that I also see fire trucks and ambulances pass by, making my living room glow from the red and blue lights, and sirens so loud they drown out the traffic if only for a moment as they pass by, we must be close to a fire house and hospital as well.  It saddens me to think so many people are hurt, in distress or seeing all they have worked for burning to the ground on such a regular basis.  Each time one passes , just like the people on the bus, I wonder what the story behind the destination and the people there is and how at that very moment their life is changing dramatically. Perhaps that comes from being a writer, a story teller, or perhaps it is from being in the four walls for far too long of a stretch at a time. 

There are cars that go through our intersection at all times of the day that just make me want to get a little evil and throw down road tacks. Cars that the owners feel the need to push the bass setting up on their car stereos to the point that things sitting on our coffee table actually bounce and the windows rattle. I hate when they stop at the lights and sit and "bounce" waiting for the green light.  Still other cars, in disrepair squeal with every movement, and they come through on a regular basis, the noise so annoying and high pitched even the cat burrs up as they pass through. Then there are the horn blowers. Those impatient people that if a split second passes and slows their movement on to where ever they may be going to they feel the need to hit the horn, not once, but two or three times. The worst however and the ones that just may one day make one of the police cars, fire trucks and ambulances come to a longer stop than what time it takes for them to speed through our intersection is the people who underestimate if they can get through the light in time or not. The screechers. They set my teeth on edge as I am waiting for a resulting crash, perhaps into another car, perhaps into the tree in our yard or even into a house. The screechers are not a once in awhile happening, it is on and off all day and all night.  They are people I do not think I shall ever understand. Is getting somewhere a few minutes faster worth the risk?

Yep, life on a busy corner will never be quiet or boring, that is for sure. It is a life I did not expect, I did not seek out, but our journey to find a home we could afford and actually succeed in buying lead us to. So now comes the efforts to get used to it, make it bearable, and make it sink into the background of our every day living here, in the cottage on a busy corner.