where do you live?

[billy rubin]

ive been thinking about how lucky i am to live where i do. i suppose ill take some pictures directly, buit for the moment i just want to remark on the noise.

there isnt any.

now that the coal mine two miles to the south has closed, there is literally no noise near me all day and all night except for the birds, frogs, and the soft sound of the wind.

quiet is incredibly important to me. ive lived in very noisy cities all over the world, and while im in pleistocene hell here during the winter, im stepping into the seasonal transition now when appalachia is actually a good place to be.

right now im typing here in the warehouse where i live (i'm on the outs with the wife again, so i live in the barn) and there is literally nothing to make noise for miles around except the wind. i hear the sound of the wind in the young elm trees outside, and the rattle of the ropes on the sides of the warehouse door. thats it. no aircraft, no traffic, no machines, nothing.

in the evening i can sit quietly and listen to the frogs about 1000 feet away in the creek bottoms. in the m ornings there are redwing blackbirds, meadowlarks, starlings, crows, woodpeckers, and so on. in the afternoon th emockingbords finally wake up. later on there will be a bobolinks, maybe. theyve been here every year for ten years now. plus the kingbirds and at night, the owls. and the hummers

i hate the wnters here, but in my current conditin there is nowhere else on earth i would rather be, and ive been a lot of places.

well, maybe i would rather be in sri lanka. but theres a lt of political crap there. still sri lanka is beautiful anyway.

id live in arizona except for all the gringos.

[Dark Lightning]

I live in a tract home in southern California. in a city of ~100k people. It has little industry, so it's pretty good during the day. Pretty much dead quiet at night, too. Good enough, for now. I wouldn't mind living where it rained more, but I will never live where it snows again (two winters in Idaho were entirely enough).

[billy rubin]

snow is great for people who live where the local government runs a plough.

where i iive snow means i have to pull my kids out of the road when they do stupid thing, like try to get home. . .

[billy rubin]

mostly theyre smart, tbese days. but not always

[Asmodean]

I live in the suburbs of Oslo, Norway. It's a quiet, well-established neighbourhood with mostly single family homes, so even though I live near one of its main access roads and the local metro station, it's pretty quiet.

A lot of hills though, so in winter, it gets difficult to get around when the conditions are icy.

[Tom62]

I live in a small, charming town near Wiesbaden. It has however seen better days as a spa town for the rich and famous. It is in the Rhein-Taunus-Kreis, which is well known for its excellent Riesling wines. The town is very hilly, which means that in winter you'd need a SUV.

[Tank]

I live on the eastern edge of the Leeds suburbs. It can be noisy if the wind direction is coming from the motorway. That said there is a lot of local walking access so in 5 minutes I'm in woodland. My wife was born and brought up in the center on London. I grew up in a little country village. Where we live is a good compromise with access to town and country.

[Ecurb Noselrub]

I live in a city of about 25,000 in Central Texas, about an hour north of Austin and two hours south of Dallas. Not a bad place to live.

[Icarus]

I live in a small town, now not so small, that was once the loveliest village on the plains. I moved here in 1948. It was the friendliest town I have ever known.  In the beginning the population was about 30,000. We had everything that we needed, things such as a good fire department, police department, a small but adequate hospital, Libraries,churches,our own electricity generating plant,and lots more of the well done essentials for a quiet and self sufficient municipality. Our problem was that we were mostly really nice people who would welcome strangers

Way too many outsiders discovered this little village and it now nears 200,000 population. It has expanded beyond its capacity to absorb more  inhabitants. Traffic is a nightmare. The town was well planned and laid out in the past. The influx of new people has almost outrun our ability to cope with the new demands for utilities, streets, water, waste disposal, and all that sort of essential component for a viable community..

My town is still my hometown and I love it.  I do wish to hell that a lot of the newcomers would go home, wherever that might be. Bless 'em all but please be kind enough to go some other place.
 
 Hmmmm.....Billy has cleverly figured out a suitable alternative by living in the boondocks.

[MarcusA]

I live in my mind, much to my regret.

Only from the heart can you touch the sky.
- Rumi

The mind's just not godlike.

[Asmodean]

Only from the heart can you touch the sky.
- Rumi

Or, if you have the inclanation and coinage, you can skydive. That way, the sky touches you. (In all them inappropriate places too, one must add )

[billy rubin]

sup, marcus?

[billy rubin]

that boondocks thing has been a lifelong plan for me, icarus. ive lived in big cities and they have nothing to offer me that can rival the boondocks.

sure, theres no indian restaurant within 75 miles, no access to public transportation

sunday i had to get up at 0200 and drive 3 hours to pick up my wife at the nearest train station

but nobody is interested in living out here for the most part. so i have peace and quiet, except for deer hunters and occasional oil field traffic.

where else can you take a walk for an hour from your front door and come back without seeing anybody else?

not in noo york citty fer sure

[MarcusA]

sup, marcus?

What's up with me, billy? What's not? Everything in life seems illusory. I am an atheist, therefore I must think.

[billy rubin]

or youre a buddhist, perhaps