Insomnia: The Return
It's been extraordinarily windy this evening. We had a front blow through today--technically yesterday--where we dropped from the upper 60s down to 50F, if not lower, and it rained for much of the day. After the rain ended, the air gusted and shook the house and I heard sounds that suggested we had at least 50 MPH winds. It was incredible. I've not heard the house like that in ages, if even ever. It made me wonder if things were blowing off the house, to which I say, good, go ahead; we're scheduled for a new roof and siding as soon as next week. This would be the time to do it.
This was my same thought at approximately 1:30 this morning, as noises loud enough to wake me started coming from the corner of my house. At first I honestly wondered if it had been so windy as to peel the siding off, slamming it against the wall. Then I realized it appeared to be *in* the wall, and scrambling around, thrashing about, attempting to free itself.
...Oh God.
I almost wonder if it's a bird, because I could imagine the sounds it created as being something with wings trying to flap its way back to wherever it had come from, plus it sounded like it had claws as it later seemed like it was scraping away at the other side of the wall. It was not a pleasant sound. It also moved, appearing to go around the corner, then along my front-facing wall, toward my closet.
At that point I was up and throwing on clothes, because I wanted to see if I could spot a hole in the house outside. It's still chilly, probably in the 40s, and still windy, though not nearly as bad as earlier in the evening. On came the jeans and hoodie. It was semi-dark; there were clouds, but the moonlight shone through, and I had the porch light on, plus the neighbors' garage lights are always on. There didn't appear to be any holes in the house. The roof was intact, the siding was intact, the gutters were intact. Nothing. Okay then.
Just as I was about to go outside, I'd heard my mother stir and then go into her bathroom. Since I knew she was up, I went in to talk to her. She'd heard odd noises too but wondered if she was hearing fireworks. ...Not at 1:30 AM, no. She asked me to go into her bathroom to see what I heard, which was nothing, though I wondered if perhaps she was hearing stuff moving on the deck. In preparation for the work on the house, my father has been dismantling part of the deck, specifically the lattice on the sides; it's tied down on the portion facing the house behind us. The rest of the deck is more open, too, so the wind coming from the north would just shear through. We do have a lot of planting items there right now. She didn't think that's what it was, but she also thought the noises I'd heard, when demonstrating them on the wall for her, were, say, hail. ...That only works if it's precipitating, which it wasn't, and believe me, if it was hailing that badly, the entire house would know.
So, anyway, it's over an hour later and I'm debating whether I want to return to my room. I did go back briefly, when mom asked if I'd wanted to come sleep with her and she had me check if I still heard the noises. I stood there about 30 seconds in the doorway, contemplating; I heard nothing. I figured whatever was there was probably exhausted from its struggle--or, as mom also suggested, dead. Which is also a great thought, and will probably mean lovely smells will soon permeate my walls. Fabulous.
The whole situation reminds me of when we had the mice, since they flocked to my room and I could hear them in the walls, in addition to my room itself *shudder*. We haven't had a problem in years. I'm super curious about what this is and how it got in there. Once it gets lighter outside and my father wakes up, I'll have him poke around a bit. We may need to have the contractor do a bit more work than expected, but we'll see.
This was my same thought at approximately 1:30 this morning, as noises loud enough to wake me started coming from the corner of my house. At first I honestly wondered if it had been so windy as to peel the siding off, slamming it against the wall. Then I realized it appeared to be *in* the wall, and scrambling around, thrashing about, attempting to free itself.
...Oh God.
I almost wonder if it's a bird, because I could imagine the sounds it created as being something with wings trying to flap its way back to wherever it had come from, plus it sounded like it had claws as it later seemed like it was scraping away at the other side of the wall. It was not a pleasant sound. It also moved, appearing to go around the corner, then along my front-facing wall, toward my closet.
At that point I was up and throwing on clothes, because I wanted to see if I could spot a hole in the house outside. It's still chilly, probably in the 40s, and still windy, though not nearly as bad as earlier in the evening. On came the jeans and hoodie. It was semi-dark; there were clouds, but the moonlight shone through, and I had the porch light on, plus the neighbors' garage lights are always on. There didn't appear to be any holes in the house. The roof was intact, the siding was intact, the gutters were intact. Nothing. Okay then.
Just as I was about to go outside, I'd heard my mother stir and then go into her bathroom. Since I knew she was up, I went in to talk to her. She'd heard odd noises too but wondered if she was hearing fireworks. ...Not at 1:30 AM, no. She asked me to go into her bathroom to see what I heard, which was nothing, though I wondered if perhaps she was hearing stuff moving on the deck. In preparation for the work on the house, my father has been dismantling part of the deck, specifically the lattice on the sides; it's tied down on the portion facing the house behind us. The rest of the deck is more open, too, so the wind coming from the north would just shear through. We do have a lot of planting items there right now. She didn't think that's what it was, but she also thought the noises I'd heard, when demonstrating them on the wall for her, were, say, hail. ...That only works if it's precipitating, which it wasn't, and believe me, if it was hailing that badly, the entire house would know.
So, anyway, it's over an hour later and I'm debating whether I want to return to my room. I did go back briefly, when mom asked if I'd wanted to come sleep with her and she had me check if I still heard the noises. I stood there about 30 seconds in the doorway, contemplating; I heard nothing. I figured whatever was there was probably exhausted from its struggle--or, as mom also suggested, dead. Which is also a great thought, and will probably mean lovely smells will soon permeate my walls. Fabulous.
The whole situation reminds me of when we had the mice, since they flocked to my room and I could hear them in the walls, in addition to my room itself *shudder*. We haven't had a problem in years. I'm super curious about what this is and how it got in there. Once it gets lighter outside and my father wakes up, I'll have him poke around a bit. We may need to have the contractor do a bit more work than expected, but we'll see.