Noise Annoyance

Dealing with the strange odor in my kitchen and sometimes dining room was an ongoing issue. I tried chemical deodorizers, and scented candles, incense, etc. It always seemed to come back. Then, one day - with no more warning than I'd had when it started... It was over (at least for a few months). The smell was gone and I finally had my apartment, all of my apartment, to myself again. It definitely made me wonder about the building, if it was haunted. My family was pretty superstitious growing up, so it wasn't a stretch. My grandfather used to tell me stories as a child about his home growing up and the strange things he and his siblings would see. I was spending less and less time at my apartment anyway - so it wasn't much of a concern.

About three months passed without incident. Things were going very well at the station, and I was developing a group of friends. I started dating a woman who worked at the office complex across the street from the station and we'd catch dinner together several times a week. She would be getting off work, and I'd be getting ready to head in for my night shift on the air. I remember the first night she came over to my apartment very well as it was the first time I heard a strange noise in the middle of the night. We had hung out all night, went to a movie, came back to the apartment and ate, then watched some TV before she went home. That night at around 1:00am, I heard this strange mechanical buzzing or "whirring" noise. It was very brief, probably only a few seconds and I probably would have dismissed it as part of a dream if it hadn't started again a few minutes later... A very high pitched whirring noise that lasted a few seconds, then stopped cold. I laid there in bed with my eyes shut, trying to figure out if the noise was coming from inside my apartment, or maybe a neighbor. While I waited in the dark, eventually I drifted back to sleep.

The next night it happened again, a high pitched whirring noise. It woke me up, but unlike the prior night, it didn't stop right away but kept going - continuously. I pulled myself out of bed and searched the apartment for the sound, finally tracking it to my bathroom. I had a cordless shaver, which sat in a charging dock. I have a sort of scruffy beard and goatee, so I don't shave every day. I hadn't shaved a few days prior to this incident actually, so the shaver had simply been sitting there powered off. There it sat now however, in its cradle, running at full speed. When I saw it, I admit, I stepped back and a shock of "WTF" went through my mind and down my spine. I rushed over to the shaver, grabbed it up and pushed the power button to turn it off, but it wouldn't power down. It kept running in my hand. I turned on the bathroom light and turned the shaver over in my hands trying to figure out what was going wrong. I pushed and held power, and bashed the button over and over again trying to make it power down. I tried plugging it in, I tried taking off the blades, eventually resorting to banging the shaver against the edge of the sink... Nothing would work to silence the shaver. Finally, being the "patient" person I am, I filled the sink with water and dropped the shaver in. No matter how "water resistant" it was, after a minute or so it was overtaken by the water and FINALLY fell silent. I actually left the shaver floating in that water over night and made my way back to bed.

The next morning, I took the shaver and the charging dock and threw the entire mess into the trash chute. I met Ludya and we went to the local GUM (closest thing would be a shopping mall in the States) to buy a new shaver among other things. We returned to my apartment late that afternoon and she asked if she could stay over while I went to the station to do a night shift. We hung out for a while, and eventually I left her there while I went to work. Before I left however, I set up the new shaver and charging dock in the bathroom so it could begin its initial charge. When I returned around 3am, I was surprised to see Ludya still awake. It seems that at some point in the evening, the shaver had powered on by its self and she couldn't get it to shut off. She ended up putting it in a drawer so it could run until the battery died. I took the shaver from the drawer and powered it on and off several times... It seemed to work normally. Ludya suggested it was defective and I should return it in the morning, but when I told her I had thrown away my other shaver for behaving exactly the same way - she didn't like that answer. Actually she refused to come back to my place for at least a few weeks. The apartment always seemed to "act up" around her as well. Light switches which would work perfectly well for me, would glitch when she tried to turn them on. She'd flip the switch and the light would come on, but then immediately turn back off again. She'd have to flick the switch 4-5 times before the light would come on and STAY on. I called building maintenance countless times trying to fix it, but the problem would always come back after a few days.

She was a trooper though, and she did stick it out, even if the apartment played these little tricks on her. She eventually moved in with me on a part time basis. The strangest stuff however didn't start until after our next door neighbors moved out of their apartment a couple years later. That was the craziness that eventually made us pack everything and move.