Time to Flee!

 One week ago, the horrible Harvest Fair began with live 'music' at local bars. For the loud bar near us, this meant a start time of 10:45 pm and an end time of 2:30 am. The following day was fair day itself. Main Street was closed to traffic and vendors set up stalls. We were looking forward to this a couple years ago when we first got to town, thinking we'd see lots of art and craft. No. It was stall after stall of plastic junk. It was difficult to get through the crowd of people. I found it quite unpleasant. We haven't done that again. As usual, there was music playing in the street during this event. Then the bar started blasting the same old loop of recorded music we've heard so often, so the noise polluters were competing with each other. I occupied myself by getting ready to flee the next day.

We knew the weekend would be the worst of the event, so we booked a room in another town to get away from the noise pollution weekend. On Friday, Saturday, Sunday, in addition to the live 'music' at the bar, much activity was planned for Main Street--different musical performers, a parade, a jiving competition, and just general drunken revelry until late. Because horrible harvest fair is a special event, the noise is permitted to extend later into the night. The worst of the schedule was Sunday, when the planned events would go on for 9 or 10 hours. Instead, on Sunday I was sitting outside on a rocking garden bench, listening to the birds singing, feeling the slightly chilly breeze, and looking at flowers whilst drinking tea and reading a book. I'm so grateful I got to experience a weekend of peace and quiet instead of agitation and annoyance. 

As a bonus, we got to spend some time with Sue, who is 16.5 years old--and what a bundle of energy! The way she wags her tail made me laugh every time. 

It was a lovely quiet weekend. We're so glad we avoided the worst of the fair. The noise issue was a lot better this summer. It hasn't been as loud and it hasn't gone on so late--the bar seems to be careful about stopping when legally required to do so. They've also enclosed much of the back area where the noise occurs, so people do seem to stay past closing time, and they may have music playing, but it's barely audible and then only in the kitchen. I can't hear it in the bedroom, so I don't care what they do. Listening to the noise last Wednesday, I was struck by how we used to deal with nights like that all the time last year and how stressful it was. The fact that we're not dealing with that kind of thing on a regular basis is another reason to be thankful. The Harvest Fair is the biggest community event of the year, though, so that's never going to be any better. What's the saying? If you can't beat 'em, join 'em? No thanks. I'll just leave instead.

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