Of all the sounds in Noisy Village, the only one I seem to like is early morning garbage—when a gargantuan garbage truck and its companion recycling truck roar down our street in the pre-dawn and use thier robotic arms to grab toters, tip them into gaping maws, and slam them back to the pavement.

Now why could this be a comforting sound? Perhaps because it just feels good to have all the stuff that has piled up, gone. Perhaps because it marks the start of a new week, one week closer to the time when I have to take my own garbage to the dump. Perhaps because when the garbage growl wakes me up I realize that I've been to, and actually have had, a pretty good sleep.

The other Noisy Village sound I rather enjoy is that of the starlings who spend their winter on the water tower. Every morning when Pax and I walk by we hear them chatting away in thier very convivial fashion, and that makes us feel convivial too, even though we may not be, at the outset, before coffee.

Of course, by the time of our forenoon walk we are raring to go. Here is a chart of today's big loop, thanks to the FitBit. Obviously, we go slow, but then Pax has lots of olfactory stuff to attend to.