Opening Windows

What a delight to come home from work yesterday to see that my husband had put the screens in the front and back doorways.  The doors were open and the breeze was flowing through the house.  The storm windows had been pulled up and the screens had been pulled down throughout the house.  The whole house was full of "fresh air".  (Yes, I live in the NJ suburbs, so I'm not sure how "fresh" the air really is, but I am just glad to welcome in soft breezes and not have to shut doors to keep the house warm.)

This is the time of year that I live for.  No furnace turning on and off throughout the night.  No air conditioning unit humming (or thumping as the case may be).  I may not be one with nature, but I'm letting a little bit of it into my house and reveling in it.  This is great sleeping weather.  You don't have to burrow under piles of blankets; just a light one will do.  You're not sweating and listening to the sound of your body as you do it.  It just is...perfect.

EXCEPT...

(...you knew there had to be an except, right?)

As mentioned above, I live in the suburbs of NJ.  I live in the beautiful neighborhood.  I have a big backyard with trees.  (And deer, but that's another story.)  However, the property abuts an "industrial" area (currently one of two car dealerships that exist in the town) and although I live on a dead end street; if the street did NOT dead end, it would run out into a major roadway.  With the windows open, the sound of the streets infiltrate the bedroom.  While the sound of a train whistle from the next town over can be quite comforting, the overnight road construction and the countless trucks that rattle and clunk (and that's putting it nicely) could wake the dead.  (And I'm pretty sure they do.)  I appreciate the work that my garbage men (sanitation workers?) do.  "My guys" are truly some of the nicest people I've met and work under conditions that...well...I don't have to say any more do I?  I really like them (and they seem to like me as they wave and say hello when I am out pre-dawn for my morning walk).  With that said, when they (or others) are driving around town and picking up the bins from the strip mall that is an 1/8 of a mile from my house around 4 in the morning...well...

And then there's the car dealership.  There's nothing like a car alarm/horn going off at 2 AM.  Perhaps someone is trying to steal the inventory or perhaps it's just a glitch.  Either way the constantly HONK, HONK, HONK!  is enough to drive the sanest person crazy!  (I don't claim to be the sanest person!)  Since there is obviously no night guard on duty (of if there is he/she needs to be spoken to sternly!) the alarm goes on and on.  The police are called...by multiple neighbors...and if we're lucky after an hour or so it ceases.  (Or it ceases on its own only to start up again 20 minutes later.)  And you wonder why I've never even considered buying a car from this dealership.  (I also wonder about the poor soul who buys the car with the alarm that's been going off all night.  What do that do to the life of a car battery?)

I could just close the windows right?  But I LOVE open windows.  I could move?  Financially that doesn't make sense and the house has been in my family since the 1920s  (when instead of a car dealership there was an apple orchard).  So, I'll just live with it  (and do a little complaining) because with spring FINALLY here, I'm going to be keeping those windows open!