Radio Rant

As recently as March (BC – Before Children) I lived in silence. In my house there was the sound of the furnace, the clock ticking, the click-click (rather than pad-pad, courtesy long hind claws) of cat feet, the occasional maiao to announce that I had yet again failed to fulfill my duties as servant, or purrful praises for my humble efforts. My ears, in fact, are sensitive enough that what most people called a “normally loud ” volume is physically painful for me.

Rock concerts are out of the question unless I wear industrial strength ear plugs, and even those musical events held in more acoustically civilized locales than the city’s pro hockey rink have me sitting with my fingers placed elegantly in my ears. I’ve even been known to request the soundman at a church service to turn down the volume (whatever happened to good old hymn singing? These days churches seem to want to present an entire rock concert every week – not that I frequent churches in the general run of things). Anyway, my point is that I didn’t have much noise, ambient or otherwise, in my environment.

All that has changed since the offspring arrived. I was warned by my SIL that babies are notorious for being routine-oriented, and unless I wanted a little hellion that refused to sleep unless it was absolutely quiet, I’d better start having a noisier house in general. So I turned on the radio – and a new rant was born. I can’t BELIEVE the inanities that are broadcast across our airwaves. Commercials drive me nuts, the music is stunningly repetitive and the disc jockeys are nauseating. Intelligent radio, anywhere?? Of course I could (and do) switch to CBC, still a source of thoughtful commentary…and while in the States I listened to Public Radio or something like that which was really good.

Okay, maybe it’s not quite that bad, and I’m slowly learning to tune out the yukky stuff. Which makes me wonder what’s happening in my subconscious since it’s still taking it all in. I can’t wait until Samuel’s old enough to sleep consistently wherever he is – he is already very good at sleeping through grocery shopping and visits to the video store so I live in hope! I did switch to a lullaby CD last night, which worked fine, and also is teaching me a few lullabies. For anyone out there, I recommend it : Lullaby Berceuse, a warm prairie night by Connie Kaldor (I tried hyperlinking to a book listing at indigo but it doesn't work properly, I'm probably doing something wrong).