Noise...

I have a project I'm working on and have told myself I will devote a minimum of 3 hours a week to it. This is in addition to my job and exercise (more later on exercise). So, yesterday I left work on time and got home with enough time for a few minutes rest with the kitty before hunkering down to work on said project. I didn't count on the noise. Behind the houses across the street from mine is an empty field (and the gas well). Apparently, they're going to build back there, though I can't imagine who wants to live that close to the gas well. They had heavy machinery going - they were working when I left the house and they were still working when I got home and they kept going until after 6:00 pm. And, the house next door to me is under construction (finally). It's at the bricking stage. So, they had their little brick breaking machine going and the Spanish radio station. Of course, the radio station had to be turned up loud enough so they could hear it, which means I could hear it. Oddly, I can't really hear much of the noises in the living room/kitchen, which is in the back of the house, but I can definitely hear it in the study. It was much more of a distraction than I thought it would be.

Then I come to work. I sit in a cube in the middle of a room that adjoins two other people's cubes. Right now I hear someone crushing ice at the refrigerator. The printer and microwave are behind me. The two people in the cubes next to me, I hear their conversations. They've started using headsets for the phones, so now when Person A makes a call, I not only hear her end of the conversation, but I also hear the person she's speaking to. Person 2 receives quite a few personal calls, which I hadn't noticed before and because she's using a headset, I now hear her radio since she no longer can use headphones. She does try to keep it low, but it's still distracting. This office is so open, you pretty much hear everything. Hard not to.

Today added smells to the list. A couple of people cooking their lunch in the microwave then someone with a different blend of coffee. Mix them all together and ugh.

Most days noises don't bother me, I can tune them out. Here lately though, person A's supervisor is at her desk often and that gets loud. Plus supervisor has what I've dubbed a monkey laugh and she does it a lot. Around lunch time, it was getting to me. It was all just running together. It's now gotten much quieter and I'm hoping it stays that way. Maybe when I get my very own cubicle and Persons A & B move over a bit in the room it won't be so bad.

Exploding soda cans, alarm systems, and a stressed out kitty....

Well, last night my goal was to get to bed early so I could get to work early because the builder had arranged for warranty work to be done on my house this afternoon. Not to be. Right before bed, I decided to put a few more sodas in the refrigerator so they'd be cold for this afternoon. I dropped one, which is not an out of the ordinary thing. Well, it blew up. And, it set off my alarm system. I have a unit which is supposed to detect shattering glass (most alarms don't detect a broken window, just a window being raised or a door opening). Apparently, mine also detects exploding soda cans. It's a new system and is just a high pitched wail. It's awful. After I recovered from my heart attack, I looked for the cat. She was under the bed and there she stayed for quite a while.

I have a walk-in pantry and that's where I dropped the can. There was still soda in the can, so less that 12 oz got splattered. It was EVERYWHERE. I was amazed at all the places I had to clean soda up from. Thank goodness for the Swiffer mops... at least the floor isn't sticky. But, I didn't get to bed early. Kitty cat did eventually come out from under bed.

Today wasn't much better. One of the warranty jobs was someone to look at my AC unit. I'm not sure it's working up to par because it just stays kind of muggy in the house. Plus, in the master bedroom the noise is awful... this loud, grinding sound like something is going to burst through the wall any minute. All appointments were made for after 3:00 pm. Alas, the AC guy showed up at 11:55 am. I wasn't home. So, now I get to repeat this tomorrow. Hopefully, we'll both be here at the same time.

The other warranty work went okay, but while I have guys in the house with drills and hammers and blowers for texturizing the wall (short story - they forgot to sheet rock and finish the bottom of the window above the door), the yard guys showed up. It wasn't quiet by any means. Kitty was again under the bed. She didn't come out until she was good and sure everyone was gone.

The last warranty work had to do with my door knobs. Sounds weird and I felt like an idiot saying these door knobs feel "loose." (I did get second opinions before doing this). End result - the front door knob was installed wrong. It's been fixed. Three others actually have defects and will be replaced. It's nice to be validated.

Going strong....

This just doesn't apply to me, but I'll start with me. Four times this week to the gym! Woo hoo! I think the weather helped. It was just beautiful until today. Today, rain with possibly severe thunderstorms (meaning hail) and possible tornadoes. Dark and gloomy. Days like this one should be spent sleeping in and lounging with the cat. The four times included two classes - step on Tuesday and last night the core board class. Heavens that class! It goes fast, but it is a workout! I stuck with the 3 lb weights because of all the movement. My short legs and the fast pace also make it hard to do some of the moves because of the width of the board, which is a bit frustrating. It was good to separate the two classes to two different days. I've done them together, but the room is just a bit too hot (or I'm just not in good enough shape!).

Speaking of the kitty cat. She appears to be doing better. Fur seems to be filling in the bald spot, but I'm still occasionally using the spray just to be on the safe side. I'm planning on cutting out the wet food. I should never have gotten her in the habit. She screams for it all the time and with the recent pet food recalls (my brand wasn't affected) I'd just prefer we go back to dry food and treats. I will say with the wet food she's not as interested in treats. But, I think she's just a tad to attached to it. My nerves will be shot, because I'm pretty sure she's going to be quite vocal in her disapproval of no more wet food. So, cross your fingers and say a prayer that my nerves can handle it. Cats seem to be pretty routine oriented, so I'm hoping it will only take me a couple of days to get us back to our pre wet food routine.

Remember the gas well that is going in basically across the street from my house? Well, I would've thought they would have been done by now, based on what the city told me. 45 days to put in a gas well. Granted it was wintry when they started, but it's been way more than 45 days. Well, Thursday morning I was awoken from a sound sleep by the loudest buzzing sound... at 1:00 am. It sounded like it was either in the house or the back yard. I actually got up to make sure that my a/c unit or some other thing wasn't about to blow up. Sure enough, the gas well people. My question, what possesses someone to do this in a neighborhood at 1:00 in the morning? Surely, it could be done during the day. Fortunately, it only lasted (at least the really loud part) for about an hour. I seriously considered calling the city again, but decided I would only do that if occurred two nights in a row. It didn't. Houses are being built across the street, so my view of the gas well is being obstructed. I almost miss it... not cause it's pretty, but because I'm basically a nosy person and like to keep an eye on what they are doing. :)

And, the landscaper who said he'd draw something up and get back. Yeah... he hasn't. Why am I not surprised Guess, I'll come up with a plan B and go from there. And, maybe that's the way it should be.

What's that noise?

Okay, I admit, after four days of listening to them drill a gas well, I'm a little paranoid. So at 6:30 this morning when I heard who knows what kind of engine sound, I admit I was a bit afraid that they were drilling again. That somehow they didn't finish.

Ummm... that wasn't it. Have I mentioned that I'm in a new neighborhood. Not all the houses are built. The cold weather slowed them down a bit, but apparently they are getting back into the swing of it full force. I'm all for this as I still don't have major warm fuzzies for the neighborhood. I think this will be resolved when it's "complete." They did just finish building a nice two story across the street and I noticed the past couple of days lot prep for two more. The noise this morning - a crane! I've lived in "being built" subdivisions, but have never seen them bring in a crane. Concrete trucks were also present (and generating some noise) and on the way to work this morning, a little further up the street was a backhoe. I doubt it will be a quite day there. Again, I understand the building and want them to get done. But, 6:30 am? I just hope they are a bit more considerate on the weekend. In prior neighborhoods with building going on, they didn't start till about 8:00 am on the weekend. And that was just basically hammering. Not a great start time, but better than 6:30 in the morning.

The fun will start when they begin building the house on the empty lot next to me. I'm both ready for it and dreading it at the same time.

They're drilling a what!?

I moved into my house in early January. I soon realized, in the field behind my neighbors across the street there was activity. The activity is the drilling of a gas well. Yep, a gas well. Smack dab in the middle of a neighborhood. Aside from the quandary of living almost on top of it, I heard today that one recently blew up in the metroplex area. Hmmm... really, who wants to live this close to a gas well?

I actually called the city yesterday because the noise was horrendous. Apparently drilling is noisy business. Very noisy. Think several 18 wheelers driving through your house in surround sound 24 hours a day. You still probably won't quite get how absolutely nerve wracking it was. According to the city and the information I found, this is a new venture for them and from what I could tell, they're still trying to get the ins and outs of the drilling process. They were great in answering my questions and getting back to me. I was told yesterday that by the time I got home, it should be done, but to call her back on Monday if there were any other issues. Oh, and by the way, they were going to burn off some kind of excess fuel, so it would look like there was fire, but don't worry, the fire department had been notified. That's good to know. And, if you haven't guessed, the noise was still there, at times louder than the previous 2 nights. All night. I left at 10 this morning for an appointment and got home late. The noise is gone. Finally. It's weird being this quite, but oh so pleasant.

Requirement is for gas wells to be 300 ft from a residence, school, church. I'm not too sure it shouldn't be further. There are also codes governing the noise, apparently except when they actually do the fracturing (? terminology). Joy. Someone could have told us. No one knew what was going on. Oh, and if I had known, would I have still bought this house? Honestly, I don't know. What I do think is I should have been told. But, hey, the builder didn't even know. And, frankly, they should have been told too.

Below are some pictures of the "torch" as I fondly dubbed it. It's gone now, along with the noise.





Photo using a night setting with the flash off.














Normal setting with a flash.