Honk, take two.

via Daily Prompt: Honk

Okay, I admit it. I’m easily entertained by the minor oddities and surprises of life. I encountered another little surprise this morning while out for my run. As I mentioned a bit ago, in Season of Change, the recreation center near me is undergoing a major renovation and expansion. Any time I go in or am nearby, I check out the activity. Today, as I approached on my run, there was a lot of earth moving going on south of the building. Looks like they are working on the foundation for the extension and quite possibly digging out the new pool. I had a sense of this yesterday when swimming, with jackhammering as the soundtrack–I pitied the lifeguards. At least my ears were full of water.

Today, it was easy to see all the earthmoving. A big backhoe near the building, scooping away, emptying its shovel into an oversized dump truck. The truck then backed down the slope, dumped its load, where it was spread by a large front end loader. I paused and watched all this for a bit, and this is when my surprise arrived. As the dump backed down the hill, the front end load operator would honk his horn to signal he was in the right position to begin the dump.

My surprise? This large front end loader (tires taller than my 5-7) has a horn that sounds just like the one on my Honda Civic. “Beep”. Not what I was expecting. I imagined something like a semi trucks airhorn. As I think about it, the beep carries well and may be easier to hear over all the low rumbles of the heavy equipment. And the beep, while easy to hear, is certainly less wearing for those living and working nearby than an airhorn. I learn something new every day, and for me, that’s good news!