Minutiae

One thing I have noticed since we moved into the Devil Queen is that old houses sounds different. There are no street lights at the Queen, so our interior lights shine as a beacon to every bug for miles around. They swarm the windows at night. The windows are single pane glass, and the weird thing about it is things tapping on the outside of the glass often sound like they are inside the house. To make it even worse, most of our windows are in a state of semi-repair so we routinely get a few bugs in the Queen on a nightly basis. We’ve had to tape plastic drop clothes over a couple to keep the problem under control.



The worst bugs are June-bugs. I hate June-bugs. They are stupid, big, clumsy, and loud. And, the drone of their wings sounds suspiciously like a wasp’s in the dark. The last thing you want to hear as you drift off to sleep at night is the drone of a wasp in flight. This leaves you fully awake, pissed off, and searching for something kill. And, even if you know that is a June-bug, it will still buzz around the room all night, bouncing off the windows with a loud “plink,” and, at some point, crawl into bed with you. Last night was no exception, though I killed it before it could join us in bed. Little f’ing bastard. At times like these, I wish we'd moved our cat, Thera, in already. Thera likes June-bugs; they're crunchy, good eating.

I’m still getting used to the creak of the old floor boards too. On the one hand, I like this sound (I don’t know why but I always have), but, when you’re trying to sneak out of the house at 6 AM without waking the family, it sucks.

We’re going to oil the hinges soon. The living room door has started creaking like we’re living in an old horror movie. It's extra creepy at night.

And, according to my wife, there is at least one mouse in the attic. How does she know? She can hear it at night. Nice.