Because GXRP was still under maintenance (due back this week, yey), I got to spend another few hours on commercial airlines last week.

Like last time, the trip went well. Neither security nor customs paid much attention to me, and I got to relax and think in relative silence for a few hours. (As other parents of young ones will know, silence is a rare treat.)

While waiting, that relative silence was broken by a few mundane events: announcements, mutter, and telephones. The latter turned out to be interesting, not just because of what the people talked about, but because of how they talked.

Take a manager of some small business, who had several pay-phone conversations with some fellow manager about a person (“Dave” ?) they needed to dismiss. Apparently this Dave person has committed twelve consecutive offences of insubordination, rudeness, even outright physical threats. Now that Dave was fired, he fired back, threatening to sue. Apparently, getting away with those eleven prior offences may have led him to believe that they were inoffensive. Imagine the poor man’s shock, I mean shock, when the twelfth straw plugged the camel’s snout. The unnamed manager/passenger discussed this matter over a fifteen minute period with all the discretion of Paris Hilton. In the 5000-square-foot waiting area, we could all hear it, and speculate about the exact nature of the repeat offence.

Another person, also apparently a manager, talked with a colleague about why a third person was skipped over a promotion to “director”. The unpromotee apparently lacked “communication skills” commeasurate with the role. The telephone conversation went on and on, with the decision-maker almost pleading with the other person to understand. It was emotional enough that, had we had both been inebriated, there may have been a comforting hug or handshake offered. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Neither of these folks was yelling. But in a quiet waiting area, even mid-loud discussion volume is too high. When I use a cell phone in a public place, I nearly whisper and cup its microphone and my mouth with a spare hand.

On the other hand, there was a time with too little noise, and that was during take-off. The CRJ is spooky quiet on the roll and the initial climb. (This is spooky because it is at these times that the engines are producing maximum thrust. Most aircraft are loudest at this time.) In the case of the CRJ, only the whoosh of the air grew louder as we accelerated. It was the sound of parasitic airframe drag – the main kerosene consumer at cruise.

As I write this back home, lawnmowers are working in the background. Noise level: back to normal.