The Square Peg - The Silence is Deafening

The Square Peg - The Silence is Deafening

© S. Bradley Stoner

I thought it was hangovers from early Wednesday celebrations or drowning the sorrows binges. Either would be understandable in Texas. What I can tell you is that the neighborhood is eerily silent. And it’s late Thursday. Given the friendly, and sometimes not so friendly battles between two of our most colorful residents I expected fireworks... or at least some noise. Nope. Not a peep. No cries of woe emanating from the House of Bob. No “Yee haws!” or other sounds of joy... no echoes of gloating what-so-ever from the Castle of Duncan. Silence. Everywhere. It’s like we turned into a ghost town overnight.

Even my walk was a lonely affair. I saw nobody. No dog walkers. No walking club. No Walking Club and no Hillary Hardbody. I didn’t even see Paula Peeksalot’s venetian blind slats part and Paula Pettingzoo was nowhere to be seen, It was weird. Even the recycle truck that comes around every Thursday morning seemed to be pussy-footing through the neighborhood. No loud clanging. No crashing of dropped recycle bins. Even the atmosphere, although overcast, was strangely quiet. No sizzling flashes of lightening. No crashes of thunder. It was like the inside of a mortuary and one had to wonder, ‘Who died?” That old Simon and Garfunkel song kept playing over and over in my mind... “Hello darkness my old friend...”

I turned on the old computer when I got back. I pulled up Yahoo news. The stories were stale. Posted Wednesday. It’s like even they were stunned into silence. Facebook... a couple of gloats and a couple of ‘Woe is me’s’ from my foreign posters, but not much else about the recent election. Frankly, I was elated. My FB account was no longer cluttered with nasty grams from each side or long-time friends unfriending each other. I could enjoy posts about science and technology. Thumb through the cute dog and cat pictures. Peruse posts on archaeology. Dally over DIY instructions. Linger over library offerings. You know... things I like. It was a refreshing change. Google+ not so much. Controversy still bubbles there. Maybe that will die down too.

Me? I’m just glad it’s over, in case you hadn’t guessed that already. And I’m ready for the country and neighborhood to get back to normal. If it doesn’t, then what the H E double hockey sticks am I going to write about? The good news? Thanksgiving is just around the corner. If that doesn’t bring out the turkeys, what will?