hey harry, wanna hear the most annoying sound in the world?

moving to the inner city there were certain things that i knew to expect, and then there were other things that i didn't quite see coming. for the most part i feel like i have made the adjustment ok so far and haven't been surprised by too much.

one of the things i knew was that it was going to be much louder. there would be lots of noise, especially late at night. my room has windows that face 43rd street, which is surprisingly busy. fortunately i am a heavy sleeper and the churning ac unit drowns out a lot of noise itself. the sound hasn't really been to much of a problem. well, for the most part. sirens just sort of fade to the background and i don't really notice them any more. but there is one sound that already i am growing to hate.

the ice cream truck.

da da du du du da da daw daw daw da da daw daw doo doo doo du da da da.... and over and over and over.

the little chiming tune you can whistle without even thinking about. the calling anthem from your youth to rush out the front door with spare change before it drove away. the excitement that ensued with gum drop eyes and sticky fingers to follow. it was a delight. then slowly the ice cream trucks all disappeared. was it just that you were getting older? no, they abandoned the increasingly desolate suburban streets. where did they all go? the city!

yes it's true. and i hear that infernal noise more times a day than i care to count. and they're all the same! mix it up a little! come on! ok i'm sure i sound like a scrooge hating the ice cream truck noise. but seriously, you try listening to that stupid tune over and over and see how quickly your fond childhood memories become hellish nightmares with overloads of ice cream and a scary truck driver named herb. in fact, forget water-boarding, just play the ice cream truck song on repeat for about a week in a guys cell and watch him crack by day three.

in high school i used to have secret destructive fantasies where i would blow up the boxes that controlled the stop lights that i really hated. then they would have to repair them and reset the timing so that the lights would not be so incredibly stupid. maybe a little weird i know, but i thought of all sorts of ways to get past that hard metal outer casing. suffice it to say that now i have new plottings running through my head....