cool nights

We came home from South Carolina couple weeks ago to quite the heat wave in western Washington. I am very thankful for our air conditioning on those rare times when the night doesn't cool down like it usually does.

Last night, I finally turned off the a/c and opened the windows up again. We're back to rain, gray skies and temps in the mid 60s, which is great for fall but is dismal weather for the last few weeks of summer vacation.

I love a cool breeze blowing across me at night when I sleep, so we usually sleep with our bedroom window open all year long--even in the dead of winter. It used to drive Wayne nuts, but he's used to it now. The most difficult part of sleeping with an open window is the noise.

Our neighborhood is your standard tract housing neighborhood in the suburbs--one of those that went up like mad in the late 90s and early 2000s (our home was built in 2003). My neighbor's back door is probably 50 feet from my back door, and each house is about 10 feet apart on the sides. We're scrunched in here, which is one reason why I am dying to move away from here. Anyway, the noise.

We always have our bedroom window open, but usually our neighbor's keep their windows closed--unless it's hot. Then our windows close, and their windows open. It's well coordinated.
This morning, with our window open and their windows open, we were flooded with morning noise:

• Alarms beeping relentlessly, being snoozed, only to go off again in 7-9 minutes. I cant tell you how many alarms--different alarms-- I heard go off between 4:30am and 5:30am! I also never realized how many people awaken to the BEEP-BEEP-BEEP alarm. Who can wake up to that and have anything close to resembling a happy day?
• Babies crying. I know they cry. I am sympathetic to that, since I had a baby and lived in pretty much an apartment. That must have sucked for my neighbors, and I'm sorry. Still, it is unpleasant to awaken to a baby crying...and crying..and crying--especially when that baby is not yours.
  
• Dogs barking. Incessantly. This dog, I want to scream at him to SHUT UP. Every freaking morning, he yips and yips like crazy. His owners are either gone or just ignore him. Who in their right mind lives in a neighborhood like this and owns a dog that is a persistent yipper? It just doesn't seem well thought out to me.
  

Hm. I do sound cranky about it, but I'm not. I am, however, really ready to move somewhere with a little more space, somewhere with a little more peace and quiet. For now, I think I will close my windows and turn the a/c back on until my neighbors close their windows again.