Big Brother

I'm back! After an almost-week-long hiatus from blogging, I decided I had enough energy to do so this morning. I've been saving most of my energy this week for Moses, but I have a little to spare this morning!

Plus, something happened yesterday (and in a few previous months) that I feel warrants discussion.

I want to know if anyone else out there lives in a town with a loud speaker that broadcasts a male voice all over town.

Yes, you read that right.

We moved to our quaint little midwestern town one year ago. You can read more about this modern-day Mayberry here and here. (By the way, I've never reported that our mayor is named Woody and owns the old-fashioned barber shop downtown. How Mayberry is THAT?)

But I think this aspect of our town is truly unique: when the town is testing out the emergency sirens (tornado sirens, for those of you not living in tornado alley), a voice first comes over a loud speaker and states several times, "This is a test of the emergency warning system. This is only a test." It is much like the voice that takes over the television or radio during testing.

Except this voice plays all over our town, and shakes my windows.

I had never heard anything like it before moving here. And what's worse, there is apparently no schedule for these tests. In other towns I've lived in, tornado sirens are tested on a certain day, at a certain time, each month.

Not here. They seem to test willy-nilly, whenever they feel like it.

Perhaps that is why they need the voice. To assure me, on sunny days like yesterday, that it is only a test.

After all, it would be disconcerting to hear SIRENS blasting. A male voice is much better.