You know the one, it makes your heart beat faster

[sovay]

And this morning we discovered that when the weather turns cold enough for the upstairs neighbors to leave their cars idling in the driveway, because the driveway runs directly past our bedroom windows—it's the slant of the hill around the house—and at least one of the neighbors' cars needs a tune-up, this time-honored ritual turns our bedroom into a resonating chamber for an all-consuming bass vibration that jackhammered me up out of dreams so fast I thought the contractors were working on the porch again as they did all this month last year. As far as I can reconstruct, I was in the middle of a psychological thriller whose modern setting did not preclude it starring Robert Ryan, last seen letting himself into a hotel room in bruised dark glasses and a stranger's change of mismatched clothes, enduring what seems to the audience like an inexplicable degree of personal harassment, or perhaps it's penance, because he does keep answering the phone to the man who says each time, "Now tell me how bad it was." When I finally fell back asleep, I dreamed about reading at the gate of an airport, which would have been extremely banal except I haven't actually been on a plane in more than a decade, which I suppose accounted for the presence of payphones.

Comments

[lauradi7dw]

There were a few payphones at Logan as recently as 2019, I think. There may be one still, but I haven't checked lately. The car warm-up thing is terrible.

[sovay]

There were a few payphones at Logan as recently as 2019, I think.

I hope they are still there. I actively miss payphones. It was nice not to have to be more personally responsible for your ability to communicate while moving around in the world than with the requisite amount of pocket change. (My feelings on the subject strongly influenced by the cellphone blackout of the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear in 2010 and the problem of communicating with people nowadays when they are between phones.)

[asakiyume]

Last time I was there, which was earlier this year, there were still some! It could be airports are the one and only place where you can still find them. I miss them too.

I have a whole rant about this--about the difference between having a phone line associated with a place, versus a person, about the notion of each person needing to be a walking communications device, as opposed to there being communications stations, whose use we share--but I'll save that for another day....

[sovay]

communications stations, whose use we share

And which someone else maintains as a public service, even if we have to pay for their use. Cellphones are your own lookout. It's one thing to have a private phone if the public ones still exist, but if they cease to, it feels like another way of cutting people loose to fend for themselves. I understand there are all sorts of things a smartphone does that a payphone doesn't, but people still need to make calls.

[asakiyume]

it feels like another way of cutting people loose to fend for themselves

YES. That's my rant in a sentence.

[sovay]

That's my rant in a sentence.

I will still listen to the full version some time.

[asakiyume]

I am easily tempted and will no doubt indulge myself at some point!

[gwynnega]

I am sorry about the car idling noise. Missing out on a dream Robert Ryan movie is really adding insult to injury.

[sovay]

I am sorry about the car idling noise. Missing out on a dream Robert Ryan movie is really adding insult to injury.

Right? He wasn't even at the airport when I got back.

[ethelmay]

Can't they get a block heater or whatever it's called?

[sovay]

Can't they get a block heater or whatever it's called?

I have no idea! Maybe they're not common anymore?

[asakiyume]

last seen letting himself into a hotel room in bruised dark glasses
--this makes me think about how dark glasses are used (in films, at least) to hide bruised eyes.

I hope the neighbors don't plan on making that a daily ritual...

[sovay]

--this makes me think about how dark glasses are used (in films, at least) to hide bruised eyes.

Fortunately, in real life, I was used to my grandmother wearing dark glasses any time she was out of the house because her eyes were especially sensitive to the sun. (My mother inherited it and so did my brother; I didn't. Family legend links it to eye color.)

I hope the neighbors don't plan on making that a daily ritual...

I hope so, too! I'm a little worried about tomorrow.

[ethelmay]

I have been told that people with light-colored eyes should wear sunglasses and hats more, due to the risk of macular degeneration. I am trying to heed the advice, as my aunt did have macular degeneration and my father was starting to before his death.

[sovay]

I have been told that people with light-colored eyes should wear sunglasses and hats more, due to the risk of macular degeneration.

That is interesting: I assume because the pigmentation does less to block the light. The sensitivity is my family is popularly linked with brown eyes! (Mine photograph dark in most lights, but are formally hazel. My grandfather's were almost green.)