Housespeak

Houses have voices and they speak a language that can only be fully translated with accuracy after many years of living within. The relationship between the house and it's occupants is like that between the ear drum and the brain. All kinds of things impinge on the structure and are converted to meaningful messages.

Take for example, a mouse in the attic above your bedroom. The message it sends is a repetitive soft scratching sound in a few selected spots overhead. By noting the source and comparing it with your mental map of the attic you know exactly where to lay the trap.

Squirrels in the attic are more challenging. There are two kinds of squirrel in Connecticut, tree squirrels and flying squirrels. Once they get in your attic they make a real racket. If they are not scraping away wood to build a nest they run about like they were holding a special Olympics, knocking over anything loose. The most important thing to note is, when they are active. Tree squirrels sleep at night and are active only in the daytime. The much smaller flying squirrels are rarely seen because they are active only at night. You lay traps for each at a time when he is not active.

Woodpeckers send their characteristic rat-a-tat-tat through the external skin of the house and it reaches the interior in a slightly muffled form. They are easily discouraged by reversing the courtesy and slamming a window shut in their vicinity.

Strong winds move houses and make them groan and creak in protest. Metal heating units expand audibly in staccato bursts. The sudden shudder of the oil burner when it first kicks in. The unmistakable sound of gravel crunching gravel, announcing the arrival of a vehicle on the driveway. Sounds from the street waft through closed windows and are recognizable by their repetitive pattern like that of the mail truck stopping and moving, mail box by mailbox, ever louder in it's approach, and becoming softer and ultimately disappearing heading the other way.

Creaking stairs, the purr of the refrigerator and the periodic discharge of tumbling batches of ice, the hum of the computer, cabinets opening and closing, the effortful opening of exterior doors and the subsequent slam. Every sound is cataloged in your brain and is recognizable as something familiar and identifiable. It's like your wired in to the entire structure and the immediate surroundings. Nothing can happen without you're knowing it, and without even having to get out of bed.

That's why moving is such a challenge. You must learn a new language and till you do you are in a foreign land.