Have you ever been innocently playing solitaire on your computer at 11 PM at night when there's a loud knock on your door, then the doorbell rings, and reluctantly open the door only to find bright lights shining towards your deck and a policeman standing in your yard pointing a flashlight at you?

And then after thousands of thoughts run through your mind as to what the police are doing there, he tells you that the neighbors have called them because your septic alarm, yes, the one that the yearly septic people messed with last week, is going off and can you do something about it?

And even though you're wearing a t-shirt and pj bottoms, you trudge out in the rain following the policeman down past your chickens (where he shines his flashlight into their coop) and to the loud alarm, where he frantically tries to find an OFF switch?

And then you push the black round thing on the back out of desperation, and the alarm shuts off?

Has that ever happened to you?

Happened to me.
- posted by Christine @ 11:05 PM

 
For the last few mornings we've had a woodpecker that's decided to make modifications to the top of the house. He's a confused woodpecker though--he's chosen to peck at various plastic-covered vents on the roof.

So the first morning I heard him, I honestly had no idea what in the world that sound was. And of course, when you poke your head out the window, the sound stops.
- posted by Christine @ 1:27 PM

 
A couple of years ago my husband came home and told me the story of how he was in his van at a stop sign when he said it sounded like a helicopter was behind him! When that happened every time he stopped the van, he figured it was more likely a helicopter wasn't involved.

Closer inspection when he got home revealed that the muffler was rattling against the mud flap.

And the few times that I drove the van, I realized how much it really did sound like a helicopter back there.

And the funny part (okay, it's not very funny) was that he drove it that way for a long, long time, including his 100 mile commute back and forth to work each day. And it wasn't just the occupants in the van that could hear this rattling...anyone within a 200-foot radius of the van could hear it too.

When sitting in my office, all doors closed, I could hear him coming up the driveway every evening, tail pipe rattling. The kids would run to the door. Dad was home.

So this summer when he left, and I was forced to take the van into the dealership for some mechanical issues, I said, "And please, please could you somehow fix the muffler?"

They did. On the sales slip it was noted, "Needs new muffler."

Fast forward to March 2005. For two weeks it seemed that oftentimes when I'd time I'd turn a corner, I'd hear a dog bark. It seemed to happen every time I left our driveway, so I figured it was the neighbor's dogs.

And then at my parent's house.

Then at Safeway.

My daughter's school.

The intersection near Wal-Mart.

I asked the kids, "Do you hear that dog? What is that?" to which they'd listen intently and say no.

Of course by this point I realized it wasn't really a dog, just as my husband hadn't really heard a helicopter. Once again the van had a strange noise that I'd either have to put up with or figure out.

So I made a big circle in my driveway yesterday, determined to find the cause of this mysterious barking sound.

And I figured it out. The answer is pretty funny actually.

A sunglasses holder clip, the one that the dealership gave me when I had the van fixed, was sliding down the visor every time I turned. It made this squeal sound that, yes, sounded like a small dog.
- posted by Christine @ 8:19 PM