Noise!

Have you noticed how new noises are creeping into our lives? I have had reason to hire a car. It's very new. It emits high frequency sounds whenever you do... anything at all! Like, select reverse, select drive, switch the lights on, look out the window or just breathe! It 'screeches' for the sake of screeching. Get tooooo close to another vehicle and it 'wails'. It makes a shed load of warning noises that are really unnerving in a "what the feck have I done now" sort of way. And it got me thinking about modern day sounds. 

You're on the high street and a pedestrian crossing starts bleeping; a lorry reversing emits a weird banshee screech; a dustcart truck goes into a high pitched bleep overdrive; an ATM machine plays the opening notes of an unfinished symphony as it dispenses your cash; your mobile pings to tell you you've got a new message; your laptop bleeps with a new email. Your senses are assaulted daily by different noises and your nerves are on high alert flight mode as a result. 

I feel sorry for dogs. I've no idea how all these man-made noises sound to them. Their aural sensitivities are programmed to much higher frequencies than those of humans. Modern cars emitting the sounds they do must be a nightmare. So, yeah, I know dogs will never have to drive cars because they're animals... although, having said that, a monkey once went into space in a rocket back in the sixties and seemed to fly that sucka without incinerating herself, so there's still hope for dogs once they stop pandering to humans who throw things for them so they can run and fetch them just to keep their owner happy. But dogs are never ever going to pass a driving test until car manufacturers get rid of car noises that ain't the radio, the horn or the engine. And how cool would that be if dogs could drive? No more need for 'walkies' because Rover can drive him/herself to the common for a dogging adventure. 

In the meantime, those of us of a timid, nervous disposition have to invest in a set of earplugs.