Silence

A Toyota Prius.

The other day (probably Monday, October 1, 2012) about 6 p.m., a gentleman rang my doorbell.
In my driveway was a Toyota Prius with his wife inside along with a small stray dog they had picked up on the street.
He wondered if I recognized the dog.
I looked at the dog, sitting forlornly in the front seat. I didn’t recognize it.
“Is it chipped?” I asked. “Anything on its collar?”
“Nothing on its collar,” the guy said. “And the vet said it’s not chipped. All there is is that Invisible-Fence thing on its collar.”
“It only hurts for a little while,” I commented.
“My cellphone number is embroidered on her collar,” I said, pointing to my dog. “Saved her butt twice.”
“Would that everyone did that,” the wife said.
The Toyota Prius is the hybrid, I think both gas or electric.
The guy got in the Prius and turned around in my driveway.
Total silence! Nothing but slight tire-noise. No engine-noise. The car silently advanced 15 feet and then turned around in my driveway.
“Its motivation must be electric,” I thought to myself. “The only noise is tire-noise.”
I noticed this before, one day at the Canandaigua YMCA.
A member came out, got in her Prius, and unparked.
Total silence!
Her car was maneuvering without a sound.
Back-and-forth she went, and then she stole silently from the parking-lot.
The average non-hybrid car is not like this. Its idling engine revs slightly up-and-down. In slow maneuvers you always get an auditory indication.

• I work out in the Canandaigua YMCA Exercise-Gym, appropriately named the “Wellness-Center,” usually three days per week, about two-three hours per visit. (“Canandaigua” [“cannan-DAY-gwuh”] is a small city to the east nearby where I live in Western NY. The city is also within a rural town called “Canandaigua.” The name is Indian, and means “Chosen Spot.” It’s about 14 miles away. —I live in the small rural town of West Bloomfield in Western NY, southeast of Rochester.)