For what it's worth (what's that sound)

[an-art-worker.livejournal.com]

Apropos of the of the discussion about airplane noise: I was awoken this morning at 6:15 by a jet going overhead. Since I'd had a late night I tried to get back to sleep. Less than 2 minutes later another jet flew by. Then another, and another and another. I counted 5, low and loud.

It did seriously suck and it made me wonder: are there really that many flights scheduled so early in the morning?

Comments

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

>are there really that many flights scheduled so early in the morning?

...apparently.

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

Passenger flights start departing Logan at 6am. I think there's a noise ordinance in place that flights can't be scheduled to arrive/depart after 1am or before 6am.

[ifotismeni]

yep, there is. i remember being stuck taxied on a runway at ass-early-o'clock because of this.

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and I usually run into the problem of people wanting to book me on 6am flights and the T not starting to run until 5am or so, so it's either pony up $40 for a cab or book a 7am flight and hope I don't get boned at security.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

They're probably commuter flights to NYC and DC and the like.

[grapefruiteater.livejournal.com]

They're flights to pretty much everywhere. Logan is very busy at that hour.

FWIW...

[nora-rocket.livejournal.com]

I heard nothing and woke to nothing. I used to live under the flight path of an air force base. I used to live under the flight path of O'Hare airport. To me, it wouldn't be a place I live without plane noise. I know that's not the case for everyone.

I am completely and utterly turned off by all discussions of plane noise, the increase thereof, the complaints thereabout, the namecalling inspired by the complaints thereabout, the reductive solutions offered to complaints thereabout ("don't like it? move"), and the debate over the relative efficacies of various civic and grassroots responses thereto.

I can't believe this board gets so tied up about the plane noise. It really floors me. But again, I've never not lived beneath a flight path, so plane noise to me is like the sweet chirps of crickets, the soft hum of I-35 in the distance, or the continual screams and WHAMS of my mentally ill upstairs neighbour: part of the soundtrack.

Re: FWIW...

[ruxxell.livejournal.com]

yeah i agree with this. if you dont like noise dont live in a city.
i hear vermont has a lot of open spaces.

Re: FWIW...

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

It's not a state for whiners.

Re: FWIW...

[nora-rocket.livejournal.com]

That's not what I meant, "if you don't like noise don't live in a city." I thought I made that clear in my original post, but I guess I didn't.

I don't advocate for any particular response; I think the whole flap is really, really tired, including that kind of response. Different people have different tolerances and different ideas of what is appropriate and how one *should* react to things outside of one's personal level of appropriateness. We might as well be flappin' jaws about how we like or do not like a specific food item. De gustibus... and all that.

Re: FWIW...

[billharnois.livejournal.com]

I disagree with this argument. We have lots of nice residential neighborhoods in Somerville. It doesn't have to be noisy *everywhere* in the city.

I really like your icon though.

Re: FWIW...

[an-art-worker.livejournal.com]

had a hearing test recently? ;-)

Re: FWIW...

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Honestly? It's just a matter of tuning it out. You don't notice it if you just accept it.

Re: FWIW...

[aroraborealis.livejournal.com]

Hear hear!

Re: FWIW...

[an-art-worker.livejournal.com]

hmm... I wonder if there is a higher birth rate along flight paths ;-)

Seems like a grant-worthy project

Re: FWIW...

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Yes, I can't believe we're back on this topic again. We just had our monthly round of it yesterday.

Re: FWIW...

[wildflowersoul.livejournal.com]

Seriously!

I have never been woken up by plane noise here in Ball Square; I used to live in a neighborhood in Dorchester that was basically right below where many planes made their landing approach to Logan, it was way louder there than it is here, and really, you get used to it. I just don't understand how complaining on the internet is supposed to help someone's sleepy-time situation.

Re: FWIW...

[elements.livejournal.com]

I grew up on a flight path, less than half the distance to my home city's airport than Davis is from Logan. The level of noise where I grew up, on the street colloquially nicknamed the "runway extension" because the pilots use it to line up to the main runway, was nowhere near the degree of loudness I have experienced in the past few months in Somerville.

I love my earplugs and use them to sleep through my housemate's snoring and the noise of my housemates waking up and showering (the pipes are on the other side of my bedroom wall). But there are some noises earplugs can't necessarily solve as well. And I have yet to start carrying earplugs around all day as I go about my life in case I happen to hear an airplane, and I'd really rather not start.

I've never personally been woken by a plane, but I've had to stop what I was doing to cover my ears because the noise was physically painful, and that's something new. It's also something I never expected to have to complain about, being a flight-path kid myself.

[spatch]

I woke up this morning at 4:30. There was a horrendous loud skrssssssssssssssssssssssshing noise accompanied by some kind of loud whine.

Turned out to be the cat who decided his food bowl was not full enough and had brought up a plastic bag to my room and beat upon it as he knows it wakes me up.

I think that if cats are hungry they ought to wait.

[ifotismeni]

hahah! my cat does this too!

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

I think you should call the Mayor about this.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, your cat only does that when the wind is blowing out over Winthrop.

[ifotismeni]

ok, i mean this in all sincerity: ear plugs. i am the world's lightest sleeper and i've yet to be woken by the plane traffic, but if it's bothering you ear plugs are a great investment.

[billharnois.livejournal.com]

sound machines work well too.

But what about when you can't hear the person you're on the phone with, because planes keep going by?

[ifotismeni]

indeed they do! i lived in nyc right next to a major hospital for a year. sirens constantly right outside my window. would have been pure insomniac hell had i not used a tiny fan right next to my bed just for the white noise, in addition to the ear plugs. i slept like a baby :0

[closetalker11.livejournal.com]

Agreed! And also a white noise machine. My former roomie was a VERY light sleeper, in addition to being an early-to-bed-er. She found that, by using both of these, she was able to sleep very peacefully through the night (and I was able to watch TV past 10 pm :).

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

It is all the people who simply cannot wait another second to get the hell out of Boston.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

While I realize that we essentially live "in Boston" as far as people-elsewhere are concerned, we don't actually live in Boston, of course. As far as actual Bostonians are concerned, we're somewhere on the way to suburban.

I was amused at an article about all the folks moving out of the city (meaning the big city here, Boston itself) and one family saying how if they went any further than Brookline, they might as well be in Ohio. I wonder what they would say about our quaint Davis Square boondocks. :)

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

if they went any further than Brookline, they might as well be in Ohio

I grew up in a rural location (albeit not Ohio), so I find this notion hilarious. Of course, when I tell people where I was living before I moved to Denver, I say, "Boston," because, well, I can't count on people from elsewhere to know anything about Somerville, let alone Davis Square.

Though saying "Boston" did lead to the following conversation with a classmate:

"Where in Boston?"
"Well, Somerville."
"Where in Somerville?"
"Uh, Davis Square." thinking: the conversation usually doesn't go like this
"Get out! I lived there a few years ago!"

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

I agree that it was silly (I laughed when I read it myself), but I also think that when talking about who around here lives in "the city", us lucky folks in Davis don't quite qualify, and I'm just fine with that. One of the reasons I like it here is precisely because it's NOT the City.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I find Boston totally unappealing.

[ah42.livejournal.com]

It's not?!

I still consider Davis to be "in the city." As far as I'm concerned, anywhere that most houses have less than a quarter-acre yard is city-like.

One of the reasons I like Davis is that it's not *too*much* city.

It's all about perspective :)

[fefie.livejournal.com]

"I was awoken this morning at 6:15 by a jet going overhead. Since I'd had a late night I tried to get back to sleep. Less than 2 minutes later another jet flew by. Then another, and another and another. I counted 5, low and loud."

Although we've always heard some plane traffic it has increased significantly in the past year (no I'm not moving, just sayin'...) New runway, increased flights taking off over Somerville or something. There was stuff in the local papers about it months ago, though I did not follow it.

[righteousness-1.livejournal.com]

There is definitely an increase in frequency and noise. On another note, earplugs may be fine when asleep but what do you do all day long on a supposedly restful Sunday? You cannot enjoy quiet to read or listen to music. I hate the freaking planes. Logan is too close to the city anyhow.