We all know what our houses sound like. Every house makes little noises - tiny creaks; the little thump when the furnace kicks in. The Bag Lady's fridge makes some very strange squeaks and crackling sounds when it is defrosting itself (which scared the crap out of her the first couple of times she heard it in the middle of the night). We are all accustomed to this phenomenon, and don't even hear the noises. Until there is a new one.
The Bag Lady has been hearing a new noise in or around her house lately. For the last week or perhaps even 10 days, she has been hearing a strange chirping sort of noise. Occasionally at first, she thought it was her dog. Her dog makes a lot of funny little half-whining noises. The dog snores, whines, yips, talks and vocalizes an amazing variety of funny sounds. But the Bag Lady has been hearing this noise when the dog is nowhere to be found. When she is in her office, the sound seems to be coming from behind her, which is the sunporch, or outside. When she is in bed, it also sounds like it's coming from either outside or the sunporch. Now, her sunporch is just a glassed-in, un-heated space that doesn't get used at this time of year - especially when the temperature is as cold as it has been the past 10 days or so!
The noise kinda sounds like a bird chirping, and is very intermittent. It is definitely not something that is regular, because she spent one night counting in between chirps (yeah...crazy...it was keeping her awake!) and there were varying intervals. It can't be a bird - they don't chirp all night long. At least, the birds in the Bag Lady's neighbourhood don't!
She is going to bundle up and go out to the sunporch and try to determine what is causing this chirping, insanity-inducing noise.
Or not.
After all, it's -51C this morning, and she can always go to the other end of the house where she can't hear it!!
She is determined to discover what is causing this. It's driving her nuts. (more nuts than usual, that is!)
But she might just wait until it warms up. The way it's going, that'll be sometime in April...sigh.
16 comments:
Firstly- -51C! Gaaaaaaa! It's a paltry -40 here.
Secondly - Did some little critter have a little one somewhere in your sun porch?
Be interesting to find out. Have your camera ready.
It's the strangest thing. I hear it periodically. I was out in the sunporch a couple days ago and didn't hear it, but was intent on capturing the poor little chickadee who was trapped out there. I didn't see anything unusual, either. It's actually supposed to warm up on Monday, so I may get a chance to investigate more thoroughly then.
Our family's "new house" in Indiana was built during the Civil War. It had squeaks and groans and doors that opened by themselves. My parents always ascribed the activity to "Wilbur", the family ghost.
When I was living in the woods of Minnesota, late one night we heard a noise at the foot of the bed, a kind of growl. Cautiously, I got out of bed to investigate and thought it had to be just outside the window or behind the dresser. No, not behind the dresser, IN the dresser!
One by one, I opened the drawers, until only one remained. Gently, I pulled open the top drawer...
... and there inside ...
was my girlfriend's vibrator.
Probably from corrosion after disuse, it had managed to turn itself on. (There must be a pun in that phrase.)
In the spirit of helping your American readers, I offer this helpful Canadian-American dictionary:
http://criminalbrief.com/?p=480
Leigh - thanks for sharing... that is too funny! The Bag Lady is frantically trying to choose one of the hysterically funny (to her, anyway) thoughts racing through her tiny brain to share with you regarding the vibrator that was so bad at it's job, the only thing it turned on was itself... oops, too late, menopause kicked in and the brain emptied.
Love the idea of living in a house built during the Civil War...
Thanks for stopping by!
Minus FIFTY ONE degrees! Holy cow.
I hate the "funny noise" thing, especially in the middle of the night, and triple-especially when the Lobster is away on a business trip. I'm always convinced it's something Evil or at least something Very Expensive to Fix, even though logic tells me it's just the damn house settling.
However, the only chirping we get is birds. Hope you figure out what it is!
Baggie you'll just have to keep us posted.. as if there was any doubt!
And Leigh that story is just too funny.. and it's a credit to you that it died of disuse. ;)
Hi, Crabby! Much like other phenomenae (sheesh, somedays you just shouldn't try to use big words...how DOES one spell that?), as soon as I acknowledged it publicly, it quit. I'm sure it will be back, though, and, with any luck, the weather will also be warmer, allowing the Bag Lady to check it out!!
(supposed to be close to 0 Fahrenheit by Monday)
Think I froze the tip of my nose whilst doing chores today...guess I'll know for sure if it turns black and falls off.
Hi, Hil - we were commenting simultaneously. I'll be sure to let y'all know if I ever figure it out!
Sis, you did mention that the cat got the chickadee in through a torn screen? Is it possible it is just the screen scraping?
Of course, when it warms up sufficiently the noise will stop.
Hi, Reb: No, this is more of a chirp than a scrape. Like I said, very strange.
I think it is the little birdie in your brain telling you it is time to fly south! Goodness gracious, -51c? Don't read my blog post from Sunday, it will only break your heart.
I think it was the grasshopper. He's looking for cheap lodging in your house because he played all summer and didn't prepare for the cold winter like the ants did. :)
SB - the Bag Lady would love to fly south for the winter, but who would feed the cows?
EWBL - you could be right, but wouldn't you think any grasshopper would be frozen to death by now?!
Um...fire alarm need a new battery?
Our makes an annoying chirpy sound intermittently when it's battery is low.
Just a thought.
Geosomin - it may well be that. When we built the house 10 years ago, I bought a couple smoke detectors with lithium batteries, guaranteed for 10 years. Fool that I am, I pushed the test button on one of them this past summer, and it wouldn't stop beeping. I eventually put it out in the sunporch, and forgot about it.
I found it again this week and got rid of it. Haven't heard the noise since...
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