I've learned to cope with this. For one, I sleep with a fan all the time to help drown the noise out. I always have some kind of noise around me during the day. Save this info for later.

I grew up in the country. When went to bed at night, it was DARK. And it was quiet. Now I live in the city (town more accurately). Cities have trains, street lights, obnoxious neighbors, cars and other various light and sound sources. Getting adjusted to the city was tough. Save this info for later.

I am a terrible pessimist. A touch paranoid too. Some people enjoy movies. Others collect stamps. Some even play solitaire on their computers. I rehearse doomsday scenarios. Remember this for later.

So last night at about four in the morning I woke up just in time to hear a hand clapping sound, but a lot louder than hand clapping...more like a door slamming. This was some of the city sound I referenced earlier (I hope you remembered). I know I didn't imagine it because my ferocious 12 pound yorkie- poodle mix started to bark at it.

It was startling. But at this time I also heard this humming sound, about a note lower than my tinnitus note. I thought it was the fan running in my room and went to turn it off. Once the fan was off, it was clear that hum was coming from outside. Four AM, hum outside. Most people would close the windows turn over and sleep. Please recall however, I am paranoid. That hum must be the hum of a crystal meth maker at a lab down the block. It is my civic duty to track down the hum! For the kids!

So at four AM this morning technically, I am out in my basketball shorts, a undershirt and bare feet tracking a hum. You might be surprised how many people are up and about at four AM. None were as surprising as the lady and her baby getting into a car down a dark alley. I couldn't find the hum. After enough wandering of the back alleys, I have determined I have done all the sleuth work I can tonight/ morning. I go back to the bedroom, and close the windows.

When I woke up for the day, today, the sound was still there, but quieter. I still can't track it, and most places I can't hear it. But thanks to my tinnitus sound in my ears, I've been playing a little game called "is that the tinnitus sound or the mystery hum?" My wife refuses to play along. I am even playing it right now. Eventually the transformer or air conditions on the fritz will blow up and the game will be over, but I am enjoying it like a hangnail for now.

If you have read my blog for any amount of time, first thank you, but second, I am starting to realize just how close I am to tumbling into the insanity regions of the mental health slider. And I am appreciating how God matched me with the perfect wife who can balance mocking me, laughing at me, laughing with me hand caring about me. But most importantly, how difficult it is at times I am sure, she tolerates me. She says ignoring me is her coping skills. I guess that is why I have started talking to myself, and my pretend bloggy friends. Goodnight bloggy friends.