House is back to normal (whatever that is)

After over a month of creepy quiet the house is noisy again. Most sounds are not identifiable they just happen. The walking sounds that started this cycle, a couple of days ago, have not repeated. But bumps, bangs, and other assorted noises can be heard from time to time. Again Shadow seems oblivious to them. Might be a good time to reinstate the motion camera.

No longer quiet

Today is the first day that sounds are again be heard in this house. Frankly the extreme quiet was getting to me. It started this morning. My wife left for the store. Shadow (my surviving schnauzer) and I planned on picking up the mail and joining my wife at the store just before noon. I was reading my computer mail and everything up to that point was quiet. I distinctly heard footsteps coming through the kitchen but ending at the foot of the rear stairway. Shadow was laying on a cushion in the Dining room and I heard nothing out of her. Normally any stranger would put her into hysterics. I am in the library at the computer, just off the dining room. Nothing more was heard and either the intruder was recognized by Shadow or it was simply a sound that is common to her. I suppose I should have gone to see if anyone was there. But I didn't. I hadn't heard the west side kitchen door open nor heard the bell that rings when that door is opened. So, being busy (actually lazy) I didn't investigate. Until recently foot steps being heard in this house is not that unusual. I did note the steps sounded like hard leather shoes on a wood floor. Our kitchen has carpet. The weather has gone from cold, upper 20's daytime, around 0 at night, to 40 daytime and 34 at night. Temperature swings, I'm told, can cause noises in old houses, by I cannot figure out how the trailing sound of footsteps could be thus produced. We had 5 inches of snow, but almost all of it has melted in the higher temperatures.

House is still abnormally quiet

Temperatures are dropping rapidly and after a short warm spell (50's high) tonight we are experiencing high winds and snow. Yet, in spite of all of this; the house is abnormally quiet. We had our younger dog out today from early afternoon til dark. But since we came home, she has been sleeping. My wife went upstairs a while ago and I have sat in the Library reading my mail. Thirty five MPH wind gusts outside (according to the local weather report) plus probably about an inch of snow and yet this house is quiet as a tomb. The house has been quiet since about the 18th of last month. No cracks, snaps, bangs, clatters, nor any extraneous sounds. At the moment the only sounds to be heard are my tapping the keyboard and an occasional squeak from the office chair I use with the computer. Old houses make strange sounds; but what about old houses that make no noise at all? I cannot remember a time in the past 35 years when this house has been this silent for more than a day or two. I guess the silence is bugging me.