Since I moved to California in a city, I have been finding it pretty hard to find any source of "pure" quiet. It really made me appreciate the saying "Silence i

Since I moved to California in a city, I have been finding it pretty hard to find any source of "pure" quiet. It really made me appreciate the saying "Silence is a luxury". When I grew up in a rural town in the midwest, it was quiet. Like we lived in a neighborhood full of houses, but it was silent almost all times of day except for nature sounds. There was occasional yardwork or a train going by. But neighbors driving around were drowned out by rustling trees it seemed, and I never noticed much traffic noises. When my wife visited for the first time, she was uncomfortable and almost in pain because of the silence, something I never expected. But where I live now, it is constant cars. When I try to go out to park or out hiking, you hear the highway. The trails here are full of people and I have to listen to people talk my entire hike. I live in a hilly area and leaf blowers seem to resonate through the hills. At 8am every day even on a Sunday, the golf course starts mowing which reverberates though the hills. There is no escape from man made noise. Sometimes I miss greatly having any space within an hour or 2 that I can go and just listen to nature. It is a huge difference and a shrinking luxury.