noises at night

photo via soonerpa

The Magnificent Skirvin Hotel, OKC

OKC: We're cooler than you think. We have noise.

The sidewalks in my neighborhood are pretty irresistable, and the trees are charming. In the fall, the porches fill with pumpkins, and at Christmastime, no house looks better with lights than those in the Edwardian style. In spring, some yards rival the Muskogee Azaela festival and during a snowfall, the neighborhood is a virtual postcard.

But, if the historic preservation guidelines don't send you scurrying back to the quiet, barren prairie of Central Oklahoma's suburbs, the noises you encounter every. single. night. might. Here they are, just so you know.

Ambulances

The ambulance posted at NW 23rd and Broadway. Endless sirens. I worked for EMSA. I know that most of these calls are "chest pains" or "seizures." Still, the sirens are as common around here as middle-aged men riding bicycles they ripped off 11-year olds.

Medi Flight

I live 1/2 a mile from the OU Trauma Center.

TV Choppers

I live 1/2 mile from the OU Trauma Center.

Police Choppers

They're chasing those creeps who stole the bicycles.

Centennial Expressway

The traffic gears up around 3 a.m. It won't wake you up, but if the dogs, the choppers or the ambulances do, the whiz of traffic will become part of the urban chorus.

The Burlington Northern Railroad

The wheels rumble. We hear the conductor blow the horn at three crossings. I can't imagine how loud this is for people who live closer to the tracks than we do. We're at least 1/3 to 1/2 mile away.

Dogs

Four on one side of us and one on the other. One of them seems to always be barking. At 3 a.m.

Cats

They get into fights. With racoons. The shrieks take the place of our nightmares.

Parties

When you live in a neighborhood with quasi mansions AND duplexes, someone is pretty much always having a party. These parties invariably move out to the porch - at 2 a.m. My favorite is the one held every year on Fourth of July. Despite the fact it's illegal to set off fireworks inside the city limits, the homeowner does it anyway. All night long, I'm peering out my window looking for the bottle rocket to land on my roof. And, the noise from the fireworks is nothing compared to the 15 people swimming in his $40,000 hot tub. I wish I were exaggerating.

Crying Children

The myriad of noises invariably wake up at least one of my kids every night, which means their restless cries are the inevitable, secondary string.

Flushing Toilets and Creaking Floors

Finally, with so many things waking up the fam, somebody will invariably have to get up and use the bathroom. And, it isn't just the toilet flushing that'll wake you up. It's the floors - they creak way louder at night than they do during the day. Keep this mind when you hunger for hardwood floors.

photo via tomfs

The beautiful Bricktown Canal and the Harkins Theater, OKC.

And, people in Chicago and New York think Oklahoma is nothing but a tallgrass prairie dotted with teepees.