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cosmolinguistLying in bed waiting for sleep, I think that the fan on Andrew's new computer, hums just at the edge of audibility, sounds like the my dad's dryer.
My mom's dryer is an unremarkable tumble dryer like you'd probably think of when you hear the word. My dad's is huge, as big as a room in our house, and thus of course outside. It dries corn. The corn needs to be below a certain level of moisture so it can be stored without spoiling.
It's a massive fire hazard, as I'm sure you can imagine. Dryer fires are a common feature of news the old farmers and their wives talk about over coffee, as essential to their season as the colorful leaves and the colorful language used to describe the end of the Twins' season.
Drying corn is especially dangerous with such old equipment as my dad's -- a lot of his machinery was older than me, inherited from his own dad, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if the dryer was too. I do know that he wouldn't let it run while he slept. He'd stay up until midnight and get up at five, but he wouldn't leave it going while he was asleep.
I've slept this little and less now, but while I was young this seemed unimaginable. I always fell asleep to this high hum, just at the edge of audibility, like the one I'm hearing now.
My dad was working for the good of his family then, and Andrew's working for the good of both of us now. Writing about Doctor Who and growing corn don't sound that much like each other, I suppose, but they have more in common than just giving me this noise to lull me to sleep.
My mom's dryer is an unremarkable tumble dryer like you'd probably think of when you hear the word. My dad's is huge, as big as a room in our house, and thus of course outside. It dries corn. The corn needs to be below a certain level of moisture so it can be stored without spoiling.
It's a massive fire hazard, as I'm sure you can imagine. Dryer fires are a common feature of news the old farmers and their wives talk about over coffee, as essential to their season as the colorful leaves and the colorful language used to describe the end of the Twins' season.
Drying corn is especially dangerous with such old equipment as my dad's -- a lot of his machinery was older than me, inherited from his own dad, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if the dryer was too. I do know that he wouldn't let it run while he slept. He'd stay up until midnight and get up at five, but he wouldn't leave it going while he was asleep.
I've slept this little and less now, but while I was young this seemed unimaginable. I always fell asleep to this high hum, just at the edge of audibility, like the one I'm hearing now.
My dad was working for the good of his family then, and Andrew's working for the good of both of us now. Writing about Doctor Who and growing corn don't sound that much like each other, I suppose, but they have more in common than just giving me this noise to lull me to sleep.
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Date: 2011-12-05 05:04 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-07 06:16 pm (UTC)