The door to the server room in our office is normally left open. When I closed it the other day, an immediate calm settled throughout the office. It quickly became apparent just how much noise is generated by the stack of servers in that room. Most people don’t realize it, but our days are flooded with noise, all the time.

I’ve valued my hearing for quite a while. I have long worn earplugs to the concerts I go to, whether or not it looks cool to do so. Back when I was a morse code jockey in the Navy, I would keep the volume in hy headpones at a manageable level. I even cut the grass while wearing earmuffs.

Last week, research was released which warns that the widespread popularity of portable music players such as the iPod could trigger a coresponding rise in hearing loss. It figures that hearing loss would follow – unless those music fans are keeping the volume at a sane level.

Don Adams, the actor who played Maxwell Smart in TV’s Get Smart, died this week. One of the show’s secret-agent gadgets was the Cone of Silence. How nice it would be if there was a real-world cone of silence that would instantly quiet the noise all around us.

Last night, we took a trip over to Blue Jay Point Park near Falls Lake for a meeting for Hallie’s preschool. As we drove by the lake, I was astonished at how low the lake is. Huge craggly swaths of bare shoreline are everywhere. One can now wade in places that would normally be over one’s head. I wish I had taken a picture of the disappearing lake.

With two days to go in the month, we need 3 and a half inches of rain to catch up to normal rainfall for the month. That would still put us in a deficit for the year.

This drought stuff is real, and it’s real scary.