Gratuitous Noise Appreciation

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“The quieter you become, the more you can hear.” – Buddha

The other day I was driving to pick up four-year-old Mr. D from preschool with Cooper the puppy riding shotgun. Coop looked at me and then started making noise like he was a cat spitting up a furball. “Khak, khak,” and then came a terrifying pause after which he let out a huge belch, “Gluuuuuuck” followed by a little cough.

Whew! Of course I told Mr. D about it as soon as he got into the car and he made me imitate the sounds for the next five minutes. It made me laugh and think about Click and Clack, the Magliozzi brothers. Remember their show, Car Talk? And they laughed with such glee as they had people describe what noises their cars were making.

And then writing noises down – isn’t that even more fun?

Like my vacuum who frequently chokes on all the puppy hair and traces of mud. It starts wheezing, “runk, runk, runk” til I clean out the filter.

Or the sound of eight-year-old Miss O practicing her hoverboard. “Wheeeee, ooohh.” Then “Clunk” and “ooof” combined as she stops herself against the wall.

As much as I love (and sometimes am overwhelmed by) the sounds coming from my little family, I usually sit in complete silence after my kids have gone to bed. But the other night, there was a rhythmic, and a little creepy, bomp, bomp bomp coming from the dining room. Upon further investigation, it was a balloon from the day bouncing on an air vent.

Early in the morning when I take the dog for a walk, I’m used to the steady patter of January rain. But the other day, it sounded peculiar. It was a “splonk” and “squitz” so I left my hood off to figure it out. It wasn’t actually raining at the moment, so the noise was the houses, trees, bushes, and wires pooling and then shaking off the recent precipitation in fat bursts.

I immediately start smiling when I hear the epic sound tracks for movies like Indiana Jones, Star Wars, and Out of Africa. But I love the sound track of my life.

Khak, khak, gluuuuck

Runk, runk, runk

Wheee, ooohh, clunk & ooof

Bomp, bomp, bomp

Splonk, squitz

What does your life sound like these days?

71 thoughts on “Gratuitous Noise Appreciation”

  1. I haven’t stopped to think much about the noises in my life because I’m too busy chuckling over yours! Leave it to the kids and four-leggeds to provide entertainment. Left to my own devices, apparently, I’m pretty boring, except for the occasional string of $#$@$ I spew out while trying to master my minimalistic techie skills. Thanks for making me laugh today!

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  2. Those are the best noises, Wynne. They are far better than summertime’s endless array of airplanes overhead, lawn mowing, cars, trains, and leaf blowing. But, much like you, I find quiet is usually best. If we silence the electronic and motor driven din, we can hear our heartbeats.

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  3. My life sounds like machines running. There’s the washer and dryer with their demanding triple beeps. And our old dishwasher that chimes weakly when it is finished running. And then there is Juanita, our cooktop, who tells us with a shrill beep when she’s going off duty.

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  4. A muffled whir from the fridge in the kitchen, constant tweets and chirps from the feeder outside the window, plus staccato click, click, click as the hummingbirds fight, and almost everyday given 4 apartments and my location next to the laundry room the clank, bag, thump of water in the pipes and the rolling thrumming thrumping from the drier… plus the one couple who cannot seem to open the door without letting it BANG loudly and forcefully into my adjoining wall 🙂

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  5. LOL, this made my day! I don’t think about the sounds my life makes, but now I will try to pay attention to them!

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  6. Skritch, skritch, skritch, skritch, skritch, skritch. Whoosh. Clickety-clickety-clickety-clickety-clickety-clickety-clack. Mew. Mew. Mew. Mew. MEWMEWMEW. Chomp, chomp, chomp.

    Laverne and Shirley scratching at the door in the morning, running down the hallway when the door is opened, begging for food, and then eating said food. That’s the soundtrack of my life these days.

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  9. Love this…and I believe I could hear Cooper hacking! Such a vivid description. Dare I share that I attempted to do an impersonation this morning of hubster Paul’s latest snore-noises? I mean…at one point he sounded like a horse in mid-whinny last night. I laughed myself silly as I re-enacted. Paul? Less than amused! Now he’s down to chronicle any night-time noises I made. Oy! 😜

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  10. We were walking with our next door neighbor a few days ago and his malamute puppy made the same noises. “Khak, khak,” followed by “Gluuuuuuck” and a cough. Maybe it’s a puppy thing? There’s a word for this: onomatopoeia.

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      1. Our neighbor was crushed when his last dog had to be put down. He came over crying and asked my husband to help get his dog to the vet. Now he has a bounce in his step. I’m sure the puppy picked up something off the street like a twig or a leaf.

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  12. Oh the soundtrack of your life is too cute Wynne. I try to embrace that profound quote by Buddha, so that I wouldn’t make crazy, inaudible sounds that could probably get me committed to an asylum! LOL 🤣😝😂 Thanks for sharing!

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  14. What a fun post! I hear the intermittent soft whoosh of the heat pump fan as it turns on and off and the quiet vibrations of the small chest freezer and my fish tank filter. And once in a while, I get to hear an eagle call. Otherwise, things are delightfully quiet at the moment. I can’t believe how grown-up Cooper is looking these days! I miss the clack, clack, clack of a dog’s nails on hard floors and the scurrying sound of a guinea pig in a cage nearby. We’re currently without furry pets – just fish.

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    1. Wow – an eagle call. How wonderful is that? I love your description of “delightfully quiet.” What a treat. But you’re right – there’s a lot of comfort in pet sounds too!

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  15. How poetic of you to consider life through the sense of hearing. I’d say my life is a continual whir of the furnace, with the occasional soft boom of it igniting.

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  16. This made me smile, Wynne! I’m not sure what noises my life is making these days but the story reminded me of me telling the tale of how I won money on the slot machines in Vegas. I thought I was making a sound like a slot machine (sorry I won’t even attempt to write it). My friend said “Tell me again what it sounded like, Michelle.” He kept cracking up laughing when I did it.

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  17. How fun! The sounds of my life currently include the click-clack of my keyboard, my MIL screeching at her husband, and some football game rerun at the highest volume imaginable haha.

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  18. The soundtrack of our lives is such a wonderful idea to pause and reflection on. Those noises you shared are so deeply personal and meaningful and joyful. It’s what makes our day complete, subconsciously animating our lives.

    I’ll have to think about mine. I say this half jokingly, half seriously, a lot of screaming and swear words from a disregulated child come to mind. 😆 But also a lot of play, laughter, and “I love yous.” And belching and farting and… Things that make my day the special days that they are. 😊

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  19. Omg Wynne I am cracking up at these sounds. The way you described them evokes memories of Dr. Seuss.

    The soundtrack of a lab is a lot of incessant beeping, timers, humming of too many refrigerators, whirring, clacking of misguided stir bars all accumulating into a soundtrack that some days is close to driving you mad. So I’m looking forward to no longer having that. I’ll have to report back in my future soundtrack.

    As for my soundtrack at home at night, I cannot tell you how comforting the little pats of Brigid the hedgehog’s feet on her wheel are that lull me to sleep.

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    1. Ooooh, you have me swooning about your description of your hedgehog’s feet! That’s so sweet. And I’m so excited about the next chapter for you!

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  20. This post had me chuckling all the way through 🙂 And I enjoyed listening to Click and Clack — their laughs were infectious and they asked some good riddles for the audience to send in the answers. I was never smart enough to figure out the answers 🙂

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  21. Argh! Oooh! Crunch; crack, groan; sigh; Zzzzzz; 🥱 😴
    These are our noises nowadays plus ‘meows’ and ‘scratches’ from Cafferty Cat when there’s no food in his bowl! 😻

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  22. You don’t want to know about the sounds of my neighborhood as I live in the city and it’s mainly cars and planes passing by. But when it’s silent, early morning or at lunch time, I can hear the birds chirping and I like them so much. So chirp chirp would be my sound 😁

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  23. I’m so glad to find someone who knows about Click and Clack. We used to have to drive long distances on weekends and it was so fun to listen to the Car Talk Guys on the radio. I also love those sound tracks you mentioned. I’m often humming the Indiana Jones theme to get things done with an adventurous spirit. ❤️ The sound of our lives? We’ve been listening to a lot of music lately – string quartets, dub step, electric, classical… We like variety.

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    1. I love your description of humming Indiana Jones to get things done with an adventurous spirit. What a great strategy. I love the description of your music. A nice soundtrack for sure!

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  24. “The quieter you become, the more you can hear.” – Buddha…Wynne, this to me is Communication 101. A good listener is critical towards being a good communicator. I loved this capture of the soundtrack of your life, and it will have me listening the next couple days just a bit more to my soundtrack.🙂

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  27. At this moment the click of keystrokes and George Winston’s Montana – A Love Story playing softly in the background. I love Winston’s command of the piano as he pulls out every note as far as it will go!

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  33. What a wonderful mindfulness practice. In my home I currently hear the low stead hum of the heat coming through the vents. The whisper of faint music. The beautiful swooshing sounds of knives chopping in the kitchen as dinner is being prepared, and what I hope is exceptionally low vibration of the dryer in use in the laundry room.

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