Tuesday, June 19, 2012

I moved from a relatively small town environment to the county 36 years ago in part to enjoy the peace and quiet of country living.

This morning I was enjoying my morning meditation while weeding the garden when my meditation was joined (about 7 AM) by the incessant whine, drone and roar of the the helicopter searching the wilderness areas around our farm from the air for marijuana patches.

A short time later, while on the road to my first job of the day I was stopped at an intersection when an explosive sound similar to that of a gallon of gasoline being ignited to start a brush pile on fire suddenly came from the back part of my Focus station wagon.  It wasn't a gallon of gasoline being ignited in the back of my car because it was followed by many more such 'Ka-Whump' sounds that shook my car. The only indication that I had that my car was still running was that the tachometer told me that the engine was still steadily idling at about 675 rpm . . .  I couldn't verify that by my ears.  A young . . .  um . . . ah . . .  a young man in a car behind me decided that he had to share with me his wonderful . . .  um . . . ah . . . music (I guess.)  Now I'm not sure what about my dark blue Ford Focus station wagon gave him any indication that I was interested in him sharing that experience.  It surely wasn't my 'I Love GSD' sicker or my 'Outdoor Experience' sticker for my favorite hiking/outdoor store.

A couple hours later I was driving down a rural highway to my next job when suddenly, out of nowhere, a motorcycle traveling near the speed of sound and making nearly the noise of Tom Cruise's F14 Tomcat at launch rocketed by me.  I found my two right wheels traveling on the shoulder of the road before I new what had happened and my heart was pumping a major adrenaline rush through my body.

I am now trying to recover at home . . . in the country.  I know that vengeance belongs to God but I must confess that I am struggling with a bizaar fantasy of some combination of elements from Stanley Kubrick's 1971 'Clockwork Orange' and Francis Ford Coppala's 1979 'Apocalypse Now.'  Wagner's 'Ride . . .' and Beethoven's 9th at extremely high decibles . . .  and other's having to listen!

Peace & quiet? ? ? what's so wrong with that?