or: Now You Hear It; Now You Don’t

Same as most people, I have a few beliefs that I have no idea where they have come from and have no reason to doubt their plausibility.

I had one of these beliefs shattered last night.

It was the worst possible timing for this particular belief to be disproven.

I went to bed around 10.30pm with my airconditioning turned off having cooled the room earlier. Sometimes I wake during the night feeling hot at which time I turn it on again for a little while and turn it off when it’s cool enough. I don’t sleep with my sliding doors open because it is often hotter and more sticky outside than in. That said, I do keep my bathroom window open because I like the idea of some air circulating.

I sat outside for awhile yesterday with my doors open, enjoying the relatively mild temperature and lower humidity while reading.

I was to pay for all of this later.

I was struggling to fall asleep and had tossed and turned multiple times, entangling myself in my sheets. I pulled them off and lay there, fairly relaxed.

There was the low hum of the fridge alternating between periods of silence and actively running. It self-regulates rather than how I tend to use my air-conditioner though I know I can set that up to do the same, It just seems like a waste of electricity.

My clock ticked.

On the 17th floor, everything else was silent.

Then there was a buzz.

It started near my feet, reached my head and did a few laps around it. It was like listening to the Dolby Surround Sound advertising at the cinema only there was no movie to follow.

I swatted at it in darkness and it appeared to leave.

It came back.

I repeated my actions, madly hitting myself.

I offered body parts as bait so it would land and I could swat it properly.

I had long thought mosquitoes wouldn’t fly up this high. I have no idea why. Probably just because I’d always been either on ground level or in forest-like areas if I was elevated when I’ve had them bothering me. Perhaps they just don’t like to fly at this altitude or the air pressure hurts them and they can’t equalize the way we do on planes (or underwater).

In all my times in various apartments over the years, I haven’t had mosquitoes so I have had no reason to doubt this view.

Until now.

It finally landed.

I swatted it.

Turns out mosquitoes can’t survive at this level after all.

 

* Thanks to Queens of the Stone Age for the title to this post.