The sounds of Israel

Here's a pic from the waterfall (yes, a waterfall in Israel! It was a wondrous sight!) at Gamla Nature Reserve in the Golan. A gorgeous place and an easy, fairly level walk to the waterfall.

Noise
Now, let me tell you something.  Israel is not quiet place.  It really isn't.  Rocket attacks and jets and army helicopters flying overhead aside, it's still not a quiet place.

For example, in good times, the sweet sounds of birds chirping in our garden is completely drowned out by either:

1) someone's house alarm, since apparently few people in our neighborhood have actually bothered to hook theirs up to a monitoring company.  The alarms can go off incessantly for hours.

2) someone's car alarm.  You might be surprised to learn that 9 times of out 10 that I hear a car alarm, it was set off by the owner.  For some reason, people here can't seem to figure out the basic workings of a car alarm.  If you've ever had one, you know who utterly simple they are.  Nevertheless, many, I dare say MOST, people in my area can't seem to get in or out of their car without setting off the alarm.

3) a backhoe tearing apart cement and/or blacktop (either a street or a house that's being torn down).  The past 4 days, I have nearly been driven insane by the sound of a little JCB (mini backhoe thing) tearing apart a house 3  lots away with its constant revving and then BEEPBEEP as it backs up.  On good days, I merely have to listen to the posse of diggers that have been tearing up some of the surrounding streets (thank goodness not ours, YET) for some sort of drainage project (mind you -- I have seen no progress whatsoever in the past 5 months of this).

4) Neighbors/workers on houses under construction playing loud music.  Saturday, our neighbors across the street decided to blast Garth Brooks into our house and garden.  There is a time and a place for Garth Brooks and a Saturday afternoon in Israel was definitely neither.

5) Barking dogs.  Our neighbors (not the Garth Brooks ones - neighbors on the other side of the house) have a dog with serious issues.  We have nicknamed him "Buster."  He looks something like a Bull Mastiff and he produces the loudest sound known to the animal kingdom.  He has incredible stamina, too.  Can go on barking for a solid hour.  Needless 
to say, we can hear him through our double-glazed windows and shutters.  Likewise, we can hear him when he is INSIDE the neighbors house with all their windows closed and all of ours closed as well.  He is the bane of our existence.  

We've talked to Buster's owners and the situation has improved somewhat, but that isn't saying much as Sweetie and I had basically permanently encamped in his daughter's room at the opposite end of the house on two twin beds before we spoke to them.  

Something is definitely not right with Buster though.  Sweetie ran into him yesterday in front of our house (the owners just let him roam freely now and then, though unfortunately he doesn't go farther than one block and always comes back.)  Sweetie stepped toward Buster threateningly, and Buster completely cowered.  A dog like that should not be cowering.  So now we wonder if he's being mistreated.  Well, clearly he's not being treated well since he's barking (and howling -- now that's something to hear) all the time, but maybe it's more than that.

Anyway, all this noise makes me really want to go find a quiet island with no cars, no electricity (and no dogs!) :-)