Meth-Heads and Sirens

Almost everyday I think about how convenient it is to live in a bustling downtown location.  Good food is all around, favorite dive bar is an easy walk and people watching is plentiful and entertaining.  It is only at night when the sleep I am urging to arrive flits at the edges of the bed and is scared away by the noises of a city that I review on the cons of urban living.  The freight trains come through town every hour or so and blast their horns at intersections.  I can usually block it out, but lately I seem to intuitively sense its nearness and wake up just in time (assuming I was ever asleep in the first place) to grit my teeth at the long whistles.  Last night no less than six emergency vehicles roared passed our house filling our bedroom with flashing lights and sirens on full blast.  Tonight I was treated to the serenading voices of a couple of crackies arguing about complete and utter nonsense.  They stumbled and skittered down the ally yelling obscenities only pausing so that one of them could hack up dinner, or a hairball.  Who knows.  

I have read stories about city-dwellers who visit the country or seaside and miss the rambunctious cacophony so much the relative quietness actually disrupts their sleep.  I have no concept of what that is like.  I have been thinking more and more of a very quiet vacation on the shore mostly because I crave the soft sounds that come with small vacation towns.  A car or two.  Wafting voices from a midnight stroll on the sand.  And the sea.  The sea. The sea.

A vacation is no where in the cards for me, but even just remembering the nights I have had in years past brings a bit of comfort.  I am fairly convinced there is nothing like falling asleep with the salt still clinging to your hair, your muscles tired from walking and jumping waves and the gentle throb of muscle memory convincing your tuckered out body that the waves are rocking you to sleep.  

Wistfully, I will reach for my earplugs and daydream about sandy locales until it turns into a visit from the sandman and real dreams come to take me away.