The sound of silence

I arrived home around six tonight, and I haven't turned the television on yet. I'm likely to watch something once I'm done with this blog entry, but so far this evening I've been enjoying listening to something: silence (for the most part).

This fall I've written about the bass coming from my neighbors' apartment and reverberating in mine. It would seem that my request for them to turn it down has been successful. The volume has been reduced. That said, I still can hear the thump-thump-thump pretty much whenever they have their sound system on. The low frequency finds it's way through the wall.

I'm hesitant to say anything else simply because I don't want to press my luck. The fact of the matter is that subwoofers weren't made for apartment living, especially for people who like to listen or watch at loud levels. I can mostly deal with where they keep it now, even if I prefer to receive less of it or, ideally, none of it.

Tonight, though, they've either not been home for stretches or are keeping the stereo/home theater system off. That means I can sit in my place and not need to manufacture offsetting noise. (I can somewhat block out the current doses of low frequency I get by having my TV on at what is a low to average volume for most people.) You don't know how much I appreciate simply sitting in my apartment without any auditory intrusions.

Even without the noise from next door, I've probably been prone to turning the TV on as background noise, even if I'm not watching it. I'm not necessarily trying to fill the silence, not in the obnoxious way that so many public and private places do, but it can be comforting to have it droning within range while I'm doing something else. (The exception would be while I'm reading a book.)

But for this night, it's been calming to unwind at home and soak up the silence. With my neighbors, who knows how precious this time may be?