# Sounds you don't want to hear **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 16, 2019, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sounds-you-dont-want-to-hear/844926 "2019-12-16T03:26:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2020, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sounds-you-dont-want-to-hear/844926/81 "2020-05-04T18:16:18Z")
A dentist asking you “Is it safe?” while reclined in the chair at the, and said dentist is manipulating all manner of instruments in your mouth. ---
**Author:** ![Hopeful\_Crow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/da6949/32.png) [@Hopeful\_Crow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hopeful_Crow)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2020, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sounds-you-dont-want-to-hear/844926/82 "2020-05-05T01:09:07Z")
> [@aurora\_maire](#): > > The chirp chirp of some detector. At least yours go chirp chirp. Ours go bip. One single bip, lasting all of a half second. Nowhere near long enough to triangulate just which alarm it is. Then it’s ten or fifteen or twenty minutes until the next bip, depending solely on the alarm’s whim, it seems. There’s no sleep to be had as long as I know there’s another bip in the offing, somewhere, sometime. On a related subject, one noise I hope I never hear again is the sound of someone incessantly popping bubble wrap as I slowly come awake. Turned out it wasn’t bubble wrap. It was the neighbor’s house on fire. ---
**Author:** ![Tride](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tride/32/13907_2.png) [@Tride](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tride)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2020, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sounds-you-dont-want-to-hear/844926/83 "2020-05-05T13:42:46Z")
The sound of running water when you open the front door of a house you _know_\*\* is empty. Especially if it’s new and you built it! ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2020, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sounds-you-dont-want-to-hear/844926/84 "2020-05-05T20:20:33Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Home alone in the deep dark Boonies and something skittering across the deck. When the cats fly to the beams beck gets the gun. I respond to random noises outside that wake me up with a sidearm and a LED light headband [I have startled the bejesus of deer grazing by the door to the barn more times =)] because 1-august 2015 my house was torched while we were inside. I had to clump out past a wall that was starting to burn through. I have fire based PTSD now. 2-the head of the bed on the top floor of the barn is more or less above where we have the propane tank for our heaters in the barn. There are few windows in a barn … 3-I am now paranoid about being torched in my sleep by the guy coming back to ‘finish’ what he started. We are the only arson place with the owners still more or less onsite living. If he was clearing people out, we would still be a target [in my poor mind] I actually have always responded to random outside night noises, when we still had critters night shooting got me more feral dogs … plus mrAru spent a fair amount of time deployed or temporarily stationed somewhere for a school or for refits. ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2020, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sounds-you-dont-want-to-hear/844926/85 "2020-05-05T21:59:34Z")
“Hey fellas, come look at this!” … your auto mechanic to his co-workers, after lifting the hood. ---
**Author:** ![Dsorgnzd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85e7bf/32.png) [@Dsorgnzd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dsorgnzd)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2020, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sounds-you-dont-want-to-hear/844926/86 "2020-05-06T01:53:22Z")
The first time I heard a red fox scream at night, in the field behind our house, I was sure someone was being dismembered, or worse. Once I learned what it was, I then noticed that almost every episode of Midsomer Murders included that cry as a sound effect. The closed captioning never correctly identified it, though. ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2020, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sounds-you-dont-want-to-hear/844926/87 "2020-05-06T10:23:39Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > It took a shy, reserved Arkansas woman to clean-up that wild Texas suburb 😃 Who else was it who was visiting your sister, then? ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2020, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sounds-you-dont-want-to-hear/844926/88 "2020-05-06T11:18:49Z")
The sound of my company phone ringing in the night. I have been off of the on call list for twelve years. When my phone rings in the night it is always something drastic going on and I know I will be getting dressed and going to a client site for a massive problem. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2020, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sounds-you-dont-want-to-hear/844926/89 "2020-05-06T11:49:36Z")
Definitely the cat barfing and car alarms. I’m also misophonic and the way some of my co-workers eat… I have actually left the break room and sat in the women’s bathroom until it was time to clock in because it was that or physically attack them while screaming SHUT UP. WHen my dad, who sometimes doesn’t hear you clearly, says “huh?” The way he enunciated it makes me stabby. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2020, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sounds-you-dont-want-to-hear/844926/90 "2020-05-06T12:44:07Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > I respond to random noises outside that wake me up with a sidearm and a LED light headband [I have startled the bejesus of deer grazing by the door to the barn more times =)] because 1-august 2015 my house was torched while we were inside. I had to clump out past a wall that was starting to burn through. I have fire based PTSD now. 2-the head of the bed on the top floor of the barn is more or less above where we have the propane tank for our heaters in the barn. There are few windows in a barn … 3-I am now paranoid about being torched in my sleep by the guy coming back to ‘finish’ what he started. We are the only arson place with the owners still more or less onsite living. If he was clearing people out, we would still be a target [in my poor mind] > > I actually have always responded to random outside night noises, when we still had critters night shooting got me more feral dogs … plus mrAru spent a fair amount of time deployed or temporarily stationed somewhere for a school or for refits. I have to ask, because no one else has: **YOUR HOUSE WAS TORCHED?** And they haven’t caught the person who did it? ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2020, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sounds-you-dont-want-to-hear/844926/91 "2020-05-06T16:14:48Z")
I had a house in the country. I walked outside one morning to hear a ‘ssssssss’ coming from the my well’s pressure tank. My immediate thought was, “that’s an _expensive_ sound.” And it was: $1000 later I had a new one installed and the old one hauled away. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2020, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sounds-you-dont-want-to-hear/844926/92 "2020-05-06T18:13:44Z")
> [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](#): > > I never want to hear my hair stylist say “Whoopsie!” > \ Even worse if you hear it from your vasectomy surgeon. \ ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2020, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sounds-you-dont-want-to-hear/844926/93 "2020-05-06T18:31:36Z")
Being awakened at 0600 by a loud boom followed by a loudspeaker repeating in English then Spanish that the cops are there and everyone in the house needs to come out with their hands up. Figured out the boom was a flashbang (at first assumed the transformer station down the street had had an oopsie) and thankfully the announcements were not followed by a hail of gunfire because based on the address they were specifying in the announcement there was only one house in between the target and my bedroom window. That was fun! Running water. I had a flood a few years back and hearing unexpected running water will give me a full scale panic attack in about 14 picoseconds. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2020, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sounds-you-dont-want-to-hear/844926/94 "2020-05-06T23:52:02Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > I have to ask, because no one else has: > > **YOUR HOUSE WAS TORCHED?** And they haven’t caught the person who did it? Yup. The fire inspector for the town decided it was accidental or something … despite it started on the top surface of the insulating cover to the hot tub that was empty, and unplugged [waiting for a pump part]. Roomie was starting to walk out to go to the demi-legal studio in the barn when she started screaming FIRE … I was already awake, mrAru was sound asleep as it was midnight. She grabbed the cat and stuffed her in the car with me, mrAru grabbed the conure and cage and stuffed it in the van with her, grabbed both fire extinguishers and tried to knock it down but it was already starting to burn through the back wall as I crutched my way out [faster than dealing with the wheelchair, I was slung about with the bail out backpack and a backpack loaded with both of our sets of medications, phones and chargers and my tablet] She called the fire department and I called the insurance company. The inspector thought it was suspicious that 5 minutes after moving the car to someone elses driveway I was on the phone to the insurance company. I guess it didn’t sink in that 1 - I previously worked for our insurance company and 2 my first day on the job after finishing training was 9/12/2001 and they loaded us onto a bus and took us down to a few blocks from the tower site to do claims. A house is nothing compared to the poor person that had just lost all 49 people in his office in 5 minutes. I should put up some pictures of the inside … it literally was 3 feet deep in lightly cooked possessions, well crisped possessions and blackened charcoal that used to be possessions delicately seasoned with blackened powdered fibreglass insulation and ashes. Houses are piles of tinder filled with people and possessions :\ just waiting for a fire to start. mrAru jokes that our next house will be rebar reinforced concrete with metal furniture and a fire supression system. I could go for that =) We have hopes that after 6 fires they might find something … someone DIED in the most current one so now the STATE fire inspector is working on it. Personally, I have a suspicion the local fire inspector either knows the person or is the person … ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sounds-you-dont-want-to-hear/844926/95 "2020-05-14T03:39:33Z")
> [@The\_Vorlon](#): > > Departing John Wayne airport in a 757–take off like a cat shot from a carrier. REAL steep climb, and then silence as the engines throttle to neutral. The the quiet sound of the air stream and the aircraft tube creaking as we go ballistic. Moments later weight returns to 1g as the engines spool up. > > Noise abatement. > > To quell panic, the air crew warned us before take off. Gods help anyone who wasn’t paying attention for the warning. > … In the early 90s, I was commuting to a client near that airport. The first time I flew, we were not warned and that is a TERRIFYING sensation. The next time, the pilots actually got on the loudspeaker beforehand to explain what was going on, and encouraged us to contact Congress to try to get the abatement rules overturned because they really did NOT like having to fly that way. For those not in the know, there is some very pricey real estate near that airport and the rich folks didn’t iike being disturbed. My “bad sound” isn’t a sound, per se, it’s a phone call in which the caller’s first sentence is “I’m okay”. Translation: they are lying. My husband did this to me when he was on a ski trip (he had broken his knee). My son did this to me last fall about midnight when he’d just gotten back from the ER getting his chin sutured back together (fire drill at his apartment; he was dozing, and in his haste to get out of the building he tripped and gashed it). ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sounds-you-dont-want-to-hear/844926/96 "2020-05-14T05:33:59Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > Worse than cat horking is waking up to the “urp…SPLAT” and then comes the skitter skitter of puppy feets across the floor followed by the most enthusiastic lapping noises you’ll hear outside of payday at the whorehouse. I mean, on the one hand I’m kinda happy I won’t step in it and won’t have to clean it but on the other hand I feel awful for letting that dog behave like the cats are treat dispensers. It is a quandary. I really don’t mind either, because their food costs over $40 a bag. You want already eaten food? Have at it! ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sounds-you-dont-want-to-hear/844926/97 "2020-05-14T08:58:34Z")
> [@romansperson](#): > > One day my husband and I were on the way into a store when one of the cars in the lot started honking for no apparent reason. As we passed it, I said “Shut up!” _and it did._ > > There was a guy coming out of the store who saw this and asked me if I could do the same thing with his dog. 😛 > > I can think of a bunch of sounds I don’t want to hear, but the one I NEVER want to hear again is a catfight in the bushes under my bedroom window at 3 am. I about had a heart attack. heh try explaining to a little kid that the sound that woke him up wasn’t his cats fighting … they were mating (which honestly sounds like cats fighting) … i just made an excuse and warned the mom she was going to have kittens in about a month or so … ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sounds-you-dont-want-to-hear/844926/98 "2020-05-14T09:11:45Z")
that few moments of dead silence when you know you just fell off the damn ladder and realize its gonna hurt … ---
**Author:** ![Moris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moris/32/2846_2.png) [@Moris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moris)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sounds-you-dont-want-to-hear/844926/99 "2020-05-15T21:20:51Z")
> [@OldGuy](#): > > I expect most of you think bats fly silently, but when you’re lying in bed in a quiet room, you can actually hear the wings flap. I’ve caught at least 4 of them in the bedroom of my current house (30+ years). > > I just want to dive under the covers, but my wife does that so I have to get my butterfly net. And they do make a breathing sounds if you find them hidden during mid-day. The most bizarre sound I’ve ever heard. Like a really, really tiny diesel engine through a high pass filter. ---
**Author:** ![CelticKnot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/celticknot/32/3392_2.png) [@CelticKnot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CelticKnot)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sounds-you-dont-want-to-hear/844926/100 "2020-05-15T21:53:37Z")
One thing I hate is the few seconds after hearing loud thuds or thunks in another part of the house, waiting for a scream or a call for help. If it doesn’t come, but then I have to check and see if the source of the sound is conscious. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sounds-you-dont-want-to-hear/844926.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sounds-you-dont-want-to-hear/844926.md?page=6)