Detour: Road Closed

Noise is all around us, no matter where you are on the planet. It's even difficult to escape it completely when you are miles in to a several day backpack. The airplane traffic alone is so noticeable. Noise has been pushing my limits for 2 weeks now. Months ago I received a letter from the City of Louisville that they would be working on the sewer in the alley one house away from us. They were inviting all the nearby residents to come attend meetings with the project managers and be in the know of what would be taking place.  I read the letter and immediately put it in the recycle. I really don't have time to attend additional meetings right now, and besides, how bad could some sewer work be?
Well, we are over two weeks into it. And admittedly I am the one in our house who is most affected by all this noise and house shaking.

From 7 am-7pm for over two weeks this is what we've been experiencing:

• A water pump runs for 12 hours straight just outside my front window.
• Beep...beep...beep of the backing up of tractors.
• Digging and scraping of large machinery. 
• Various tools opening the paved street.
• Sandblasting.
• Dump trucks moving dirt.
• Tractors and backhoe's running, sitting idle out the windows.
• The house shaking from the jackhammering.
• Men in bright, orange hard hats yelling to each other over all the noise.
• Exhaust coming in from the machines.
• The public bus, which has been rerouted so it passes by our house 4 times/half hour.
• Delivery trucks and all other traffic sitting at the stop sign on my corner.
• My parrot Mango screeching for hours on end. All this noise and activity is throwing her off terribly.

I guess its no surprise that my studies have me focusing on Sound Ecology and the affect anthropogenic  sound /noise has on wildlife.   I am also very curious why some animals are more affected than others...and how Alex can actually sleep through all of this. He attributes it to having shared a house in college with multiple musicians. That makes him an adaptable urban survivor like a Corvid, and me the unadaptable species. According to recent studies, my inability to adapt to all this noise could result in the demise of my species.