Sound essay

Ok, I promised a sound essay and recorded these sounds a few days ago. Click the sound box to play the sounds, the "High-Brow NPR" commentary is written here and not in the audio clip. It's up to you whether you read the comments first or listen to the sound first......




The Weinberg garage. Whether Trish is an outpatient or an inpatient we park in the Weinberg garage. It's a 3 level parking garage in the basement of the Weinberg building (the cancer center). When we first started out and they still had the Broadway garage, it was pretty easy to get a space in the garage. When they demolished the Broadway garage to start the two new buildings, parking in Weinberg became a little bit harder and they handed out "Weinberg Appointment" signs. We have one displayed in our van at all times. The sign allows you into the garage to find a space, even when the garage is at or near capacity and they are sending people to the other garages.

So the sounds.... The first sound you'll hear is me pulling up to the ticket machine. As you pull up the ticket machine starts talking. During Trish's first round, I started to play a game with the machine to add some zest to my mornings. My goal was to grab my ticket and stop the talking before he started. The first few times, I would stop it after a few words. Eventually, I had perfected my technique and I can now grab a ticket and go before the machine utters its first word. I didn't play the game this time, so I could catch the whole recording for you. You can imagine how annoying this can become for 204 days or more.

The next sound you'll hear are the screeches of my wheels making the turns as I wind my way down the garage. I think the screeching is because I probably need new tires on the front wheels. I'll probably do that before we take the car home. I always park on L3 -- it's the lowest level and easiest to park on. Also, after a long day in the hospital, I don't have to remember where I parked today.

The last sound byte, is of the highly annoying elevator waiting area voice. This short loop usually repeats 3 to 10 times before the elevator shows up to take you up to the lobby. It is enough to drive you insane. I have thought about disconnecting the speakers.

This will probably be the first and last audio essay. While there are all sorts of other interesing sounds around here, they may be difficult to get without a HIPPA violation. Some of the critical patients on this floor have really cool machines that blow bugles and other cool sounds to alert the nurses.