Ever since I've been switched on back in April, I've been hearing clicking noises around my house. I'd be sitting on the sofa in the quiet, and the click would start. No rhythm just a click. Some clicks were louder than others. Some like a stone being thrown at the window. I have mentioned this in passing on more than one occasion to my student, but she couldn't hear them. So I decided that it was completely in my imagination. Going mad. I decided not to discuss the clicking noises I had been hearing with anyone anymore, for fear of being committed to the asylum!
This clicking I have never heard before in my life. I've had the odd stone thrown at my window to get my attention (another long story which I won't go into here), but nothing like what I've been hearing day in, day out for the last 2 months. I've been successfully ignoring it... until this morning, sitting at my dining table having a coffee in the sun with a friend, I heard the click again.
'Did you hear that'? I asked
'What?' said Les (Oh geeze - it is in my imagination!)
'I've been hearing clicking noises ever since I've been switched on and I've not been able to tell what it is' (He's now going to think I'm even more nuttier than before!)
Click
'That - I said - did you hear that???'
'Yes - I heard that' he said with a smile.
Fortunately for me, Les decided to tell me what it was - he could have spun such a tale and I would have believed anything he said at that stage. He's been known to do this on occasion, as he knows I'm the most gullible person on earth.
'It's the glass expanding in the window frames' he said.
'Really? - Is this normal? - Does it happen in all houses?'
He went on to explain that not only it was normal, but every house has it, and wooden houses are every more noisier than this as not only does the glass expand and contract, but the wood does too.
Click
'Did you hear that one?' he asked
I nodded
'Did you notice any difference?'
'I did - it was duller'
He went onto say that it wasn't the glass in the alumninium frame expanding that time, but the wood around the aluminium frame expanding.
I'm amazed. At 21yo (give or take a couple of years) - I'm learning something new - I didn't think houses clicked. I had no idea. I knew old wood floorboards creaked, but that was it. And not only do they click when they expand in the mornings, but also when they contract in the evenings.
Wow - my house talks!!
Cheers
Robyn
Listening to the house contracting now and wondering if I can make the house expand with clickss so I can add another room onto it! A self expanding house - might increase in value :)
Yep, If you want to hear a better example go visit someone with a Lockwood house. They are the worst!!!!!
ReplyDeletePS: I reckon we should start figuring out our ages in Hexadecimals. That way you get to be 30 and I can be 26 without any lying!
Awesome Robyn,
ReplyDeleteThis new world is a weird place, much different from the ‘normal’ world of sound I left late last year! Even the creatures are ‘out there’. Our little Bichon, Milly used to jump up on our bed and flop down with a big ’woosh’ sigh as she closed her eyes and promptly went to sleep. Now she jumps up and lets out this weird bubble, bubble, bubble sound kind of like a water fountain, maybe she’s becoming amphibian like a tadpole!
Cheers Colin
funny you post this Robyn, as I sit in our new house (we just moved in to a 1950's bungalow) and I hear clicks all day and night long.
ReplyDeleteBronni - what a good idea about our ages in hexadecimals. I'm all for it :) Can I get it changed on my birth certificate too?
ReplyDeleteColin,
ReplyDeleteI cracked up with your description of Milly bubbling on the bed. I have now got a vivid picture in my had of Milly blowing bubbles out of her nose as she settles down to sleep!!!
Cheers
Robyn
David - did you know what the clicks were? I had no idea for two months, but I've never heard them in my life before!
ReplyDeleteCheers
Robyn
No wonder I've always hated hearing aids. You hear everything. I like my silence better. With your description of what its like with CI, it is definitely not something I'd want. Sometimes less is better.
ReplyDeleteWe don't have those kind of window frames in the house but this reminded me of the metal ductwork under my house. In the wintertime, the heater causes it to contract and expand. I was sitting there for quite some time trying to figure out what that sound was after the rushing air. Finally I gave up and asked someone and they told me it was the ductwork, very very annoying!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you hear it now too! :)
Oh, my, Robyn, you've probably settled a rather "unsettling" mystery for me! I sit here alone in my house and hear things, and I know nobody else is here to make any noises. Now I can add this to my list of what the blazes the sounds might be. I was getting paranoid, too...like I might be going mad. Not that I'm not, but at least THIS is not one of the signs of it. Heh.
ReplyDeleteLiz