Whistles

It's lightly raining here and overcast.Sound carried differently when the weather is like this. I can hear the barges whistles blowing as they go up and down the river. I can also hear train whistles.

We live on a bluff overlooking the Mighty Mississippi and altho we can't see the river from here because of a large wooded area on the hill, we can hear river traffic and trains when it's overcast.

I love it at night when it's quiet in the house, no A.C. running, no fans, just the night...laying there listening to trains as they go from here to there, blowing their whistles at every intersection. It's such a lonely sound. I don't know why it seems lonely to me, but I love it anyway because of the romance connected to trains.

We have a lot of train traffic in this area. They hold up our buses a lot during the day. We are always having to call in and tell the boss to let the schools know we're running late because we've been held up by a train. Train whistles don't have nearly the romantic sound up close as they do far away. Up close they just sound ghastly!! Way too loud and harsh! But I guess they have to sound like that to get peoples attention. It's amazing to me that anyone crossing tracks could not hear a train whistle!! Dude, your music is WAY TOO LOUD!

Speaking of trains, my maternal great grandfather (mom's mom's dad) worked for the railroad up until he died in a train accident somewhere around Cedar Falls, Iowa. I want to do some research to find out when he died, how the accident happened and where he died. I've managed to find his grave thru a website called Iowa Gravestone Photo Project. Very interesting. It may be the start of a whole new hobby of genealogy. I already have quite a background on my mom's dad's side of the family, but not her mom's side.

Well, it's a long work day for me, I have to get going!