Things were going quite well this morning, and I was getting quite a lot of things done. This was making me happy and I thought to myself ”this is going to be a pretty good day!”
It was only a little after 9:00 and I already had a good number of things checked off on by to-do list!
Landscape near Sedona, AZ
Then everything changed.
My otherwise peaceful morning was interrupted by what I consider ”the third most annoying sound on the planet:” the sound of somebody operating an "industrial grade" gasoline powered weedwhacker nearby.
I know there are people who totally ignore sounds like that and just continue working as if nothing had happened, but I'm not one of those. I am also not "one of those guys" who thinks any and all things relating to power tools is "awesome!"
I'm the sort of person for whom there are a lot of sounds that I find to be extraordinarily intrusive and they tend to break my concentration as well.
Weedwhackers are one of those. Power saws — as in power saws being used continuously on a building site — is another. Gas powered leaf blowers are yet another and those annoy me doubly because they tend to bring up a huge cloud of dust to go with the noise. The sound made by routers and orbital sanders are also super annoying.
Now, it would be easy to say that I must be reaching "grumpy old man" age, but the truth is that sounds like these have always bothered me, ever since I was even a very small kid and their sound would cause me to run and hide under my bed.
Quite literally.
What’s slightly weird about all this is that when I was in college and would be studying I had no problem concentrating and getting things done, even when there was music playing in the room, and my roommate was watching TV, and there were people coming and going all the time.
The only exception would be if somebody was watching either a war or action movie on the TV and there was lots of explosions and gunshots being fired. For some reason that particular set of sounds would also break my concentration and make me feel highly irritable.
On the whole, though, it's just a certain set of sounds that seem to have a particular frequency and intrusiveness. Even in a small dose, they seem to be capable of ruining my inner peace... if not my entire day!
Anyway, I had to stop what I was doing and walk away... till the weedwhacking stopped. And then I ended up writing this post...
Thanks for reading, and have a great remainder of your week!
How about YOU? Are there certain sounds that drive you nuts? That totally break your concentration and even can ruin your enjoyment of the day? What are they? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — NOT A CROSSPOST!!!)
Created at 20210505 12:43 PDT
x168
I was in a car accident and hit my head pretty bad. It has taken YEARS to be able to tolerate noise. It has been easier during the pandemic because I do not go anywhere, but I am unable to tolerate crowds, loud talking, and other nuisance noise.
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I just don't "do" noise, at the best of times. I had a strong dislike and avoidance of loud sounds when I was a kid, and that has never changed.
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An electric drill from the other side of the wall is the worst sound for me. There are three apartments around my place... From time to time, they do this... Unbearable.
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Oh yes, that's definitely high on my list, as well. Particularly if they are using a masonry drill to make a hole in brick, with the dry squeaking sound! Gack!
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with the dry squeaking sound - :)
Another noise I recollected is an airshow they make in spring every year. Several military aircrafts are synchronously flying on a low trajectory and releasing jets painted in the colors of the Russia's flag. The window glasses are shaking, alarms of parked cars are screaming.
This happens once a year so I am more entertained with the dullness of the show and its absurdity than annoyed with the noise.
In 2020-2021, there was no traditional airshow and the exhibition center that used to hire these flying "circus performers" able to kill hundreds if something goes wrong, was adapted for the reception of patients with covid.
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