• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

I get lost in London quite a bit. So much so that I started using the sat nav on my phone :oops:
 
Yesterday night I was sitting infront of the computer. Then I started hearing a high pitched noise comming outside.
At first I tought it was an airplane, but as soon as I stepped outside I realized it wasn't.
The sound was coming from all directions at once. It was enourmously loud.
It stopped after a while (perhaps twelve seconds) and I went back inside.
About thirty minutes later all the power in the neighbourhood went out. It was pitch black.
I made my way down the staircase using my hands to feel the sourroundings.
We have a fire burning down the with wooden logs so the room was a bit bright. Atleast I could now see something.
I got a candle, lit it in the fireplace and began heading upstairs to search the upstairs closet for a flashlight.
All of a sudden the room lit up in bright blue color for a few milliseconds.
I turned towards the window and saw that flashing blue light where appearing from the snowy fields outside.
It looked like electric bolts where shooting up from the groud.
NOTHING electrical worked in the house. Not the cordless telephones, not the water fossets. Nothing.
 
You have electrical water faucets? That sounds dangerous. And inconvenient when the power goes out.
 
rynner2 said:
I've seen two docs. The first said she couldn't give me anything for it. The second, a fortnight later, probably felt he had to do something, and so prescribed a nasal spray to decongest my tubes (or summat). Still no change...
Click to expand...

Hmmm.... Did they tell you why you have lost so much hearing? Have you seen an ENT specialist? IMHO if you have suddenly gone seriously deaf on one side you need to know why. If there's no obvious inflammation then you should get further investigation, including head CT to rule out neurological causes.

If he hasn't referred you already nag your GP until he does.

(kinda OT, but I felt the need to gratuitously offer advice ;) )
 
Isjunnt said:
Yesterday night I was sitting infront of the computer. Then I started hearing a high pitched noise comming outside.
At first I tought it was an airplane, but as soon as I stepped outside I realized it wasn't.
The sound was coming from all directions at once. It was enourmously loud.
It stopped after a while (perhaps twelve seconds) and I went back inside.
About thirty minutes later all the power in the neighbourhood went out. It was pitch black.
I made my way down the staircase using my hands to feel the sourroundings.
We have a fire burning down the with wooden logs so the room was a bit bright. Atleast I could now see something.
I got a candle, lit it in the fireplace and began heading upstairs to search the upstairs closet for a flashlight.
All of a sudden the room lit up in bright blue color for a few milliseconds.
I turned towards the window and saw that flashing blue light where appearing from the snowy fields outside.
It looked like electric bolts where shooting up from the groud.
NOTHING electrical worked in the house. Not the cordless telephones, not the water fossets. Nothing.
Click to expand...

Do you have overhead power cables nearby? If so, is it possible the blue flashes originated from one of these coming down? It's possible stress on the cable may also have been the source of the high pitched whine.
 
Dr_Baltar said:
Do you have overhead power cables nearby? If so, is it possible the blue flashes originated from one of these coming down? It's possible stress on the cable may also have been the source of the high pitched whine.
Click to expand...


No, I don't. And I was thinking the same thing. But these bolts where coming from the ground. And It wasn't just around my house. As I said these bolts where all over the field.

You have electrical water faucets? That sounds dangerous. And inconvenient when the power goes out.
Click to expand...
I don't know why. But every time we have a power outage the faucets won't work. I though that was due to electric faucets, but I've abandoned that theory now.

( No water on thor's islands during power outage)
A newspaper that proves at least one aspect of my story is true.
http://www.blt.se/nyheter/solvesborg/in ... 5184%29.gm

Auto translation:


On Torsö have previously both telephone and sewage problems. Power failure also seems to break down water.
We will be without water for several hours when you are unlucky, say Gote Nilsson pathway.
In recent years it has become increasingly common with repeated power cuts out at a summer cottage in the pathway. Stops typically lasting five to six hours, is something they have learned to accept during the summer months.
The biggest problem is that about half an hour into the cuts so stop the water supply.
- It's obvious that the pressure decreases immediately when power gone.
Click to expand...
 
Minor synchronicity....I have three Undertones songs on my I Pod....."Mars Bar" starts to play, and three or four seconds later a Mars Bar advert comes on the telly! Made me chuckle! :D
 
I was up early today (about 0630), and dressed well before 0900.
I've been out twice since then, but this evening I felt like I had something in my shoe. Eventually I took my shoe off and shook it out - nothing.

Then I realised the 'something' was actually in my sock. I took my sock off, and found a granite chipping in it. :shock:

But how had I walked around all day with a granite chipping in my sock without realising it? :?
 
rynner2 said:
But how had I walked around all day with a granite chipping in my sock without realising it? :?
Click to expand...

A chip off the old block? Sorry, it was the best I could do with the material available.
 
Are you diabetic? Whether or not you are diabetic, could you have some peripheral neuropathy? That might account for your not being able to feel the chip in your sock.

I'd be having a good look at the foor for signs of injury and possibly seeing the doctor anyway. We're not spring chickens, y'know. ;)

Peripheral neuropathy is very serious. It's what causes people with Hansen's disease (aka leprosy) to lose digits and limbs, rather than the sort of 'rotting off' process of popular imagination.
Hansen's sufferers in India used to keep pet cats and even take them on holiday in a basket as a simple way of keeping their neuropathic extremeties in place.
 
That's really cheered me up... :(

As for doctors, they still haven't sorted out my deaf ear.
"If it's not better in a fortnight, come back and see us.." :evil:
 
Oh right, your ear isn't getting any better so your foot will just have to drop off. That'll show'em.
 
How big was the chip? Maybe it was between your toes for most of the day until you noticed it? I've had that happen before with small gumnuts and the like.
 
LaurenChurchill said:
How big was the chip? Maybe it was between your toes for most of the day until you noticed it? I've had that happen before with small gumnuts and the like.
Click to expand...
Possible. The chip was 1 to 2mm.

I'm also considering that it was picked up in my shoe in the normal way, and then worked its way inside the sock. I shall have to check the socks for holes! 8)
 
Is it not more likely you picked it up on the sole of your shoe and then deposited it on the carpet, then picked it up again whilst walking barefoot and then it got inside your sock?
 
Hansen's sufferers in India used to keep pet cats and even take them on holiday in a basket as a simple way of keeping their neuropathic extremeties in place.
Click to expand...

Escargot, how exactly does that work ?

Rynner, 1-2mm isn't a chip , it's sand.
 
Bigfoot73 said:
Rynner, 1-2mm isn't a chip , it's sand.
Click to expand...
Well, I didn't have a micrometer handy, but nearer 2mm than 1 mm. 8)
 
Bigfoot73 said:
Hansen's sufferers in India used to keep pet cats and even take them on holiday in a basket as a simple way of keeping their neuropathic extremeties in place.
Click to expand...

Escargot, how exactly does that work?
Click to expand...

How kind of you to ask. 8)

I learned this from a book, The Gift of Pain, by Paul Brand. He is an American doctor and former missionary.

In rural India, sufferers of Hansen's disease would wake up in the morning with parts of toes or fungers missing and the remaining tissue would become inflamed. This was seen as a normal if distressing part of the disease.

But the puzzle was, where were the body parts going? They didn't just drop off - they disappeared completely.

Dr Brand began sitting up at night to watch sufferers sleep. He found that rats were nibbling at them and eating their fingers and toes. The sufferers didn't wake up because of the neuropathy, which stopped them feeling pain.

Hence the idea of keeping cats to guard sufferers at night. The rats stayed away and the digits stayed on. :D

It's all true - read Brand's book!

Neuropathy is also associated with diabetes. Brand's work on Hansen's disease might have gone unnoticed if not for the useful things it taught other doctors about diabetes, the curse of the richer first world. Quite ironic, what?
 
That reminds me of a clue in an Enid Blyton book when I was little.
The trees pointed the way to an old gazebo with a secret passage that had treasure hidden in it.
Maybe Ms Blyton had never seen a tree before?

Incidentally I've been looking for that book for years now. I can't remember what it was called but it was my favourite when I was little.
 
As I was walking down the shop today to buy my paper I started wondering what happened to the football goalkeeper who was jailed 3 years ago for killing two brother in a crash whejn he was drunk.

As I was walking home reading the sun there was a picture of him. Bosses had spend money repairing snooker tables at the prison.

It felt rather weird.
 
This is something that has been troubling me for about a week.

I am a bit of a night owl - working in translation and interpretation has completely skewed my sleeping hours. (US companies expect all the other countries out there to deal with their working hours, so any communications with the US usually end up being in the middle of the night here... :roll: )

Anyway, even when I am not working or on call, I usually am awake until around 4AM. Most of the time I am reading, doing research, etc, but am indeed in the bedroom either at the desk or sitting in bed.

For the past week or so, about once an hour, there is a loud "creak" sound from the corner of the room. It sounds much like an old creaky hinge. It happens only once, then is silent again for around an hour, then creaks again. The earliest I have heard it has been around 2:30 - the latest at about 5:30. I usually catch it twice each night, at 3 something then at 4 something when it will startle me as I am trying to fall asleep.

Sitting facing the direction it comes from, my ears tell me it is coming from a specific spot at the corner of the room. The thing is, that corner of the room isn`t really there. There is a hall closet that sort of juts out into that space. I checked the closet thoroughly - it only has slippers, umbrellas, a step ladder, a packed away tent and some picnic equipment. Nothing that could make a sound. Either way - the sound cannot be heard in the hallway even with the closet door open.

I have moved everything out of that part of the room... And still, the creak remains. The wall is a very thin, internal partition wall. There is no space in it for anything to be hidden.

It is really starting to drive me crazy as it is a very clear creaking sound. It doesn`t seem muffled at all.

I am honestly ready to just assign it to some paranormal source, as I can`t find anything that could be causing it.
 
Could it be beams in the attic cotracting and expanding due to temperature changes?
 
Ronson8 said:
Could it be beams in the attic cotracting and expanding due to temperature changes?
Click to expand...

The building is steel beams and concrete. :)
If the beams are creaking inside the concrete... then I suppose I should be very scared.
 
tamyu said:
...I have moved everything out of that part of the room... And still, the creak remains. The wall is a very thin, internal partition wall. There is no space in it for anything to be hidden...
Click to expand...

Depending on the method of construction it could be the timber studding inside the wall. This is a very common cause of apparently unexplained noise in domestic situations. As the building cools down overnight, or heats up during the day or when the heating is turned on, the studding can shrink, swell and flex and create tapping and creaking noises as it does. Timber nowadays (and I think this is true wherever you are) tends to either be less seasoned, or artificially seasoned, which means that the fibres have more settling down to do before the timber is completely stable. Generally speaking, it won't go anywhere, because the structure of which it is a part will stop it doing so - but it will try.

Kind of related: Shortly after I installed central heating into my present home I was woken at night by incredibly loud cracks - almost like pistol shots. This happened several times but it was weeks before I realised that the noise was caused by the panels of my internal doors (which are original to the building and probably about 100 years old) cracking under extreme tension - caused by the variations in temperature created by the introduction of central heating. (Technically, these panels should be floating inside the framework of the door, to prevent this happening, but years of varnishing had glued them in place.)

Very disconcerting at the time.

(Edit: Sorry, posted before I saw the last couple of comments. Although it does strike me that the hall closet might be timber framed. And, of course, the internal partition walls may well be timber frame.)
 
Spookdaddy said:
(Edit: Sorry, posted before I saw the last couple of comments. Although it does strike me that the hall closet might be timber framed. And, of course, the internal partition walls may well be timber frame.)
Click to expand...

The closet is hardly a closet - calling it a set of two cabinets would be more accurate. There is a cabinet attached to the ceiling - then one from the floor to around waist height. The middle is an open space where we sit our bags, mail, keys, gloves and such in winter, etc. The cabinets are sort of like stand alone items. They`re boxes, and could technically be removed. The top one is secured to the ceiling with cement nails. The bottom one just has a few screws holding it to the partition wall.
I suppose it could be some sort of cabinet creak, but I can`t hear it in the hallway. (In trying to figure out what the sound was, I sat in the doorway until it happened. Loud and clear inside the room, not a sound in the hallway with both cabinet doors open.

The wall itself is two sheets of particle board with about an inch of insulation between. It really is more "partition" than a wall - I can move it with a firm press!
I suppose it could be some movement of the wall itself, but why now? It has never done it before, and this year is no warmer/colder/drier/damper than usual. We are strange and frightening people who do not use room heating even in winter, so I don`t think there is any significant change in temperature between day and night. It is a rather dark and cold bedroom to begin with - there is only one small window that is facing north and is in the shadow of our entranceway no matter the hour.

I think what is most mysterious is that it sounds exactly the same every time. Next I think I will have to look outside and try to see if there is something that could be making the noise.
I am beginning to think that while my ears are telling me that the sound originates from that area, they may be deceiving me. The sound is too short to really home in on and doesn`t occur regularly enough to narrow it down... So it is totally possible that it is coming from somewhere else and my ears are mismapping it.
 
Okay, another suggestion - but a long shot.

I don't think you'd find these in a domestic situation in the UK, possibly you do in Japan - but, you know those electronic, mains wired air fresheners which release foul smelling perfume (in the UK you tend to find in hotel bathrooms)? Well, they can make very bizarre noises indeed. My local pub has one which sounds exactly like someone going pssssssssst - to the extent that the first time I heard it I thought someone after a bit of rough trade. :shock: And I was working in a hotel in London a few weeks back where the thing made a horrendous and slightly theatrical creaking sound - as if Bela Lugosi was about to exit one of the cubicles.

As I say, a long shot - and possibly a bizarre one - but I'm kind of fascinated by apparently inexplicable noises (hey, everyones got to have a hobby). I think I've already told the story somewhere of the time I was working on my own on a remote house conversion and sleeping on site. It was okay, apart from the sound of conversation which regularly punctuated the otherwise very quiet nights. The sound would appear and disappear apparently at random as I patrolled the house looking for inconsiderate phantoms, until one night I suddenly realised what it was, lifted a couple of boards on the ground floor and found a spring gurgling away quietly under a corner of the kitchen. From certain positions that gurgling sounded exactly like human voices - to the extent that I could pick out individual words. A couple of paces one way or another, and it sounded just like running water again.

Sorry, went off on a tangent there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top