Sigh
It's been that kind of a week.
Been in a bad mood all week, for no reason I can figure out. It's probably been exacerbated by lack of sleep, which in turn has probably been exacerbated by the heat—it hasn't been that hot yet, which bodes ill for the rest of the summer, but it's been hot enough that I've had my new fan on, and that's been putting it in the in-between zone (at various times of night) between too hot with covers and too cold without them.
The termite people came yesterday; I imagine they probably did a competent job, but they're really lousy at communication, both with customers and among themselves. Two or three weeks ago, I called to ask a question about their methods of termite control, and the guy I talked with said that they no longer did the microwave technique that was mentioned on their form. I consequently spent a fair bit of time researching and waffling over the decision of whether or not to have them use Termidor, an insecticide. Of course when they showed up yesterday morning they brought their microwave equipment and used it. I didn't ask about this, since it's what I wanted in the first place, but I did find it annoying. Also annoying: the inspector was here until the work crew arrived, and then he left. Only he didn't really tell them where the main termite infestation was. And since I've never seen any actual evidence of said infestation (except for the huge mound of dead termites when I moved in), I couldn't help them other than to say "it's around that window." So I'm not even sure I got the right place.
I've noticed, btw, that termite inspectors see evidence of termites in places that I don't, and some of them see evidence of termites in places that other inspectors don't. I have a hard time figuring out whether they're imagining things or some of them are just sharper-eyed than others. Or whether the termites move around a lot.
So last night, totally exhausted, I went to bed around midnight, hoping for a full night's sleep. And was awakened at 5:30 by heavy equipment moving somewhere nearby.
This happens every couple of weeks. Last time, I called the police, only to be told the officer who came by couldn't hear any noise. This time, I kept my phone turned on, and talked to him when he called. He eventually tracked it down to a drywall company that's apparently a couple doors down from me. And they told him that they've been approached about noise issues before, but that this neighborhood is zoned as a light industrial zone and so there are no restrictions on when they can make noise.
The officer's looking into it to see if they're right; as with the officer last time, he was very friendly and very helpful. And he said they were friendly about it and that they said they'd try to keep it down, and indeed the noise level did go down around that time. And I may well be the only light enough sleeper in the area to be bothered by it.
But I was woken up despite my earplugs; I could feel the vibrations through my bed, and I could hear the rev-stop-rev-stop of the engine through the earplugs. The nearby traffic noise doesn't wake me up; an obnoxious bird that sounds like the chirp of a smoke alarm with a low battery, only every few seconds instead of every couple minutes, sitting just outside my window, is inaudible through the earplugs; I had the fan on, so there was white noise. So I was doing everything that's relatively easy to do about it. It's just a particular volume and frequency, and non-continuous sort of noise, that I can't sleep through and can't get back to sleep during.
Actually, for all I know I usually can sleep through it; maybe they do it all the time and it's only certain mornings when it wakes me up.
I do need to try soundproofing the windows (oh, and I just noticed that one of the windows in the guest room is no longer square in its frame, which makes me nervous since it was square in its frame a few months ago), and I probably need to try getting a different bed. But the thought that I bought a house in a light industrial zone where there are no restrictions on noise does not exactly inspire me with confidence.
Maybe I could have my ears surgically removed or something. Or possibly my brain. Or maybe I could invent a silence machine, or wear noise-cancelling headphones to bed.
But for now, since the noise seems to be gone for the moment, think I'll try going back to bed.
