If you’ve ever walked the perimeter of Stanley Park, you will have seen the cannon there. It’s called the 9 o’clock cannon in our house because, well, it goes off at 9 pm. But I think that is what is it called, anyways. It’s been firing off for more than 100 years.
My husband has an alarm on his iPhone (a revving car if you must know) that is set for 8:59 so he can watch the cannon go off. There really isn’t much to see, but there is a pattern: first the light turns on (from our angle it is just about the third sail on Canada Place), then it goes out, then you see the muzzle flash and then – 10 seconds later- you heard the rumble.
It’s become a “thing” in our house to watch the cannon go off. And although I tease my husband for being a dork, I am glad that we take the 1 minute to watch the cannon together. But when we have guests, they too seem to enjoy pausing and watching the cannon go off. Inevitably, they comment on how amazing it is that it is so long before we actually hear the cannon compared to seeing it.
The other interesting thing is the fluctuation in sound. We speculate that it is based upon the weather and pressure, but I can’t say that I am a sound engineer. Some nights it seems to ring through the rafters, other nights it is just part of sounds of downtown.
February 15th, 2013 Extra-Ordinary: Constancy in cannon firings.
The Daily EO 