Sleeping With The Windows Open

I'm always reluctant to put in the window units at our house.  Our house isn't large, but it still takes 3 units to cool the house effectively.  One smaller unit in each of the bedrooms, and one large unit in the main living space.  The main reason I don't like putting them in, is the battle with white noise.  This isn't a quiet white noise, like a small fan going.  This is a loud and invasive white noise, that causes you to breathe a sigh of relief when they are off for a while.  If it wasn't so damn hot and uncomfortable to sleep at night, the choice would be easy.  We finally put the A/C in our bedroom the other night, and I did a little happy dance getting ready for bed in a nice cool room.

The A/C unit also helps with filtering pollen, which is a godsend for someone with allergies (me).  Breathe Right strips help a little, and so do eye drops, but nothing beats a good air filter.  Leaving bedroom windows open during pollen season isn't the best option....

Another complication:  because of my paranoia of living in a less than reputable neighborhood, I don't like to leave the windows open wider than the little security tabs.  I'm sure they aren't much help in preventing a break in, if someone really wanted to get in...but it adds to my piece of mind when I'm sleeping.  The downside is severely reduced air flow in the 2 inches of open space that is left.

Lately, we've had some birds singing at night...sometimes till 3 or 4 am, and LOUDLY.  Last night I noticed that the bird was in our front bushes, right outside the window.  I sat and listened for a while, and realized it had to be a mockingbird.  There were calls that sounded like frogs and car alarms, thrown in with the largest variety of calls I've ever heard!  Here's a sample of what I found on YouTube:

I should record my own video to put on YouTube because our guy is certainly interesting.  At least I can hear him when I choose to, and not have to deal with him keeping me awake.  One plus to the white noise that is loud enough to drown out a car alarm.  

I've done my gardening for the day, and decided to hunker down in the cool bedroom since it's close to 90 degrees out today, and the other window units have yet to be taken out of the attic.  Later I will be venturing out to a talk at Ellwood Thompson's Forgiveness Farming with Joel Salatin.  It's going to be awesome and informative.  For those of you haven't seen it, watch the movie Food Inc.   It featured Mr. Salatin and his farm, Polyface, which I plan on making a trip to visit in the near future.