Sunday, February 12, 2012

Box Fan

The power went off last night about 3 a.m. No apparent reason, I guess the electrons just go tired of zooming down the country lanes at close to the speed of light so they stopped.

I know this because we sleep with a box fan by the bed and when the blades stopped turning, I woke up.

People ask me why we sleep with a box fan year around. To explain, I'd have to go back a ways.

We moved to where we now live in 1980 
from the small town of Sumiton. Even though the town was small, you could hear the drone of traffic from highway 78 and it never stopped.

Tractor trailer trucks moving freight from Memphis and points further west, blew through Sumiton on their way to Birmingham, Atlanta, and points east. 

Deep into the night you could hear them through the thin walls of our mobile home, slowing down at the red light on the highway and then crawling back up to cruising speed one gear at a time....allllllll nighttttttt looooooong.   

We bought us a box fan and turned it on low. The fan was the perfect solution. It ran spring, summer, fall, and winter. The gentle whir of the fan drown out the sound of the trucks. 

When we moved to the country, we didn't have to contend with the sound of the trucks, but it was so quite here that you could hear owls, coyotes, dogs and roosters in a crowing 
allllllll nighttttttt looooooong.

Since we'd become accustomed to that gentle whirring sound of the fan, we used it here too. When we travel, we have a travel fan that we take with us.

This morning when the power went off, my eyes opened immediately when the blades stopped turning.

I slipped out of bed and using my iPhone for a flashlight, I went into the office to report the outage. Less than an hour later, we heard that familiar sound. 

I was asleep before I made a mental note of the time.

12 comments:

  1. We live on a hill, and down below there's a train that comes and goes all night long. It used to keep me awake but ever since they prohibited them from blowing the horn between 11pm and 6am I rarely ever hear it. Sometimes we get an ornery engineer who doesn't like the no horn rule - THEN I wake up!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good ol' white noise.
    We sleep with a "blade" fan all year too.
    Quiet can be so loud, ya know.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I use one too. Works like a charm. Amazing how not hearing it makes a person wake up.

    ReplyDelete
  4. My wife got me one of those white noise machines years ago when I worked nights at the hospital and had to sleep in the daytime. It was a valiant effort, but my body never could adjust to working nights. When I went to day shift, everything was suddenly much better!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I have a couple of owls outside my window who sing after midnight - they sound like shrieking banshees!!! But I'd worry now if I don't hear them!

    Glad your box fan is whirring away gently in the background!

    Take care
    x

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love it! Silence can be deafening!

    ReplyDelete
  7. We love a fan, too. But for me, crickets are even better. Or katydids. :)

    Whatever helps with the zzzzzs.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous3:31 PM

    I sleep with a fan year round also for the "noise"...and as you if for one second those blades stop turning...I'm awake...

    ReplyDelete
  9. It is interesting that many of your followers us a fan too. My granddaughter does that. We once lived a block from the railroad track. The train whistle woke us up the first week, after that I never heard it again. I guess my brain got used to it.

    ReplyDelete
  10. We used to have an air purifier that made a nice whirring noise. I couldn't sleep without it.

    Love,
    Janie

    ReplyDelete
  11. Nice post dear. Thanks for sharing it. If you want affordable Air Purifier. Go and purchase it.

    ReplyDelete
  12. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete

Please consider sharing

Email Signup Form

Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required