N. said, "how do you know when to turn the heat off?" (under the kettle). I couldn't explain it. It's the moment when the heating water noise goes down in pitch just the tiniest bit, when it's going to start boiling soon. If I turn it off right then, the electric range cools off at a rate that means that the kettle will just be boiling (but not hard enough to whistle) when the burner has cooled to warm. No energy wasted!
It made me realize how much I listen in the kitchen: when I had a gas oven, it was hot when the gas shut off. I listen to the pressure cooker to hear when I need to adjust the heat under it. I listen to the rice cooking, covered, on the stovetop to hear if it's simmering without taking off the lid and losing steam. And I hear the slight hum of the electricity to my toaster oven, telling me that even though it's off, its clock is running and I need to turn off the power strip.
Here's the thing: the toaster oven hum is around a B just under middle C. Same as the fridge hum, roughly, and the fluorescent hum, roughly, and sometimes the hum of the outtake pipe for the gas boiler. And this morning, the same as the distant fog horn I heard as we sat eating breakfast. Everything is in tune.
Maybe this is some cosmic synchronicity, and my whole life is just in tune. Or maybe it's the thing that happens after a day of picking blueberries, when my eyes immediately see blueberries wherever I'm walking, filtering out the rest of the noise. Maybe I'm only noticing the tuneful hums. Nope. I don't think so, because the quiet spin of my PowerBook's hard drive is not in the B-C range. But my neighbor's snowblower is...