And the Beat Goes On…

This morning I woke to a dreaded noise. It’s not that it’s a bad noise, or that in-and-of-itself it’s a noise worthy of being stopped. But every year, come August, it’s a noise that I’d just as soon not to have to endure again. What’s that noise that affects me so? The sound of the high school marching band.

I happen to live right next to a high school…a high school with an award-winning band. It’s obvious that they became award-winning by practicing. A lot. Which is great in theory, but having to endure the pounding of the drums and the blare of the trumpets when I’m still trying to eke out that last hour of sleep in the morning is very trying.

I don’t have the option of shutting myself off completely from the sounds of my house, so ear-plugs are out. Closing the window helps cut the brass section some and muffles the drums…but then that means I just can’t quite make out the tune, which is very irritating (though when they played "George of the Jungle" several times every morning a few years back, I couldn’t get the tune out of my head).

Yeah, I didn’t have to live so close to a school. Hey, who knew? I thought the only distraction would be the mass exodus at the end of the school day (which is a definite, albeit brief, distraction). I hadn’t thought about the very early pre-school-session concert for eight-to-nine months every year.