{"id":15378,"date":"2025-04-15T08:12:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T15:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/?p=15378"},"modified":"2025-05-31T10:06:05","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T17:06:05","slug":"the-hum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/2025\/04\/15\/the-hum\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Living where I do is generally quiet. Unless they\u2019re doing work in the wash. Then it\u2019s a constant beeping and grinding as heavy equipment rumbles up and down the wash moving dirt around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ll not talk about the dust and debris that blows in on the wind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when I first moved into this house after I\u2019d been here for about a month, suddenly there was \u201cThe Hum\u201d. At first it was only something I could hear in the Master Bedroom. What was strange is that due to an acoustic oddity, I could only hear it in one relatively confined area in the bedroom. (Of course it happened to be on my side of the bed.) It drove me wild and disrupted my sleep. My loving partner switched sides of the bed with me, so that I could actually sleep because he couldn\u2019t hear it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over time, \u201cThe Hum\u201d grew such that I could hear it everywhere in the house and outside too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slowly, it stopped being a constant thing. It became intermittent and finally after years, it was gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t actually hear \u201cThe Hum\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s not entirely true, but I hear it more like the sounds you hear when you\u2019re underwater. That soft area just behind your jaw near your earlobes. That\u2019s where it feels like I\u2019m hearing the sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many years, I haven\u2019t heard \u201cThe Hum\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This morning, well before dawn, I woke with my jaw clenched, grinding my teeth. I laid there for a few moments trying to figure out what woke me up. Then I heard it. \u201cThe Hum\u201d was back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only now, instead of being constant, it\u2019s cycling up & down, then being entirely silent, then starts again. It\u2019s like an annoying gnat buzzing around your ears that you can\u2019t quite seem to kill. Just when you think it\u2019s gone, buzzes into your ear canal to remind you it\u2019s there and piss you off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Hum,\u201d is like that but worse for me. It\u2019s right on the threshold of my hearing, just loud enough that it bothers me, but most other people can\u2019t hear it at all. So I\u2019m the crazy person!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I suspect that it\u2019s originating from a water pump that\u2019s at some distance from the house. I can hear \u201cThe Hum\u201d very clearly inside the house, but outside it\u2019s not as prominent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think it\u2019s resonance in the ground, and somehow the house is picking it up an amplifying the sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The water company claims that it\u2019s not them, I couldn\u2019t possibly hear the pump, and drops all subsequent inquiries in the \u201cCrazy Person\u201d bin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an effort to determine if \u201cThe Hum\u201d is originating in the house, I shut the power off. My thinking was that any and all electro-mechanical devices would power down so if \u201cThe Hum\u201d remained, it was external, not something I was doing to myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Hum\u201d never missed a beat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dog hears it too. He\u2019s a lot better at ignoring it than I am. I suppose since it doesn\u2019t represent an immediate threat, or treat he just figures it\u2019s the price of living in the human world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know he hears it because if \u201cThe Hum\u201d stops for a minute or so, then starts again he wakes up from his nap looks around, then goes back to sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll try wearing my AirPods with noise cancellation on. I don\u2019t think they\u2019ll help because where I feel the sound isn\u2019t the ear canal. Maybe a full ear set of headphones would help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d ignore \u201cThe Hum\u201d if I could. Something about the sound disrupts my thought processes and keeps me right on the edge of being angry. The way it comes and goes makes my brain start looking for a pattern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes, \u201cThe Hum\u201d sounds like Morse code. With that kind of dot-dash-dot pattern, my brain thinks there\u2019s something to decode and being on the threshold of hearing, drags my full attention to the sound even though I know it\u2019s nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have the same problem with fluorescent lights. They all hum, and most of the time I hear them. If one is starting to go out I hear that too. One of the many reasons that school was so very difficult for me. I tried very hard to listen to the teacher, but the humming from the lights and their patterns always captured my attention more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Incandescent light bulbs will start \u201cringing\u201d about a day before they burn out. The first few years living my the other half, it drove him crazy that I\u2019d walk in from work with light bulbs the very moment he\u2019d turn on a light and it would flash and burn out. I think he thought I was doing something to the bulbs on purpose to freak him out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even LED bulbs \u201cring\u201d, as do plug in transformers used to recharge devices. Braun trimmers and shavers are the loudest in this regard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So now you know why I like to sit at the bottom of lakes, or pools, and why I like SCUBA even though that\u2019s actually a bit noisy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Living where I do is generally quiet. Unless they\u2019re doing work in the wash. Then it\u2019s a constant beeping and grinding as heavy equipment rumbles up and down the wash moving dirt around. We\u2019ll not talk about the dust and debris that blows in on the wind. But when I first moved into this house … <\/p>\n

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