noisy red caboose

They say that when you’re pregnant your sense of smell becomes more acute. I can attest to this, as can my poor husband who hears my complaints whenever he sprays even a tiny spritz of Windex or 409 three rooms away. Amazingly, the potency to my pregnant nose is as if he dumped half the bottle directly up my nostrils. I can also detect cigarette smoke trickling through our car’s a/c vent from a driver in front of us if their window is open a crack. And we cannot forget the infamous night that Jeremy lit the Nag Champa incense in our house. I honestly thought I was going to have to check into a hotel for a few days until it cleared.

I cannot say I have ever read anything about pregnancy igniting a stronger sense of hearing. But I am starting to think my ears have become bionic along with my nose.

I hear trains all the time now.


I think we have tracks somewhere near our house, but they must be several blocks away at least, since I can’t say for certain where they are. Down by the river maybe? I have lived in this house for over three years and I have never noticed train sounds until a month ago. Now I hear them constantly. I just heard one pass five minutes ago, and all throughout the night they blast their horns in declaration that they are moving through…whee whee! Whee whee!


I have tried sleeping with ear plugs tucked inside my super-powered ears, but can still manage to hear the trains seeping in and pulling me from slumber every few hours. It is the strangest thing, and I know that I am not dreaming or imagining it. I can’t be.

Annoying as it is at times, I am also beginning to like the sound of trains. There’s something old fashioned and nostalgic about a train---the chug-chug-chug as it rolls along the track. There’s always a mystery as to what’s inside the cars…is it coal or steel, or a filthy-clothed stowaway who hopped on board to catch a ride to the next town?


Jeremy and I are driving to Chattanooga this month to take some photos, and Chattanooga always makes me think of trains. I can almost hear them now, ever so faintly in the distance.