Sorry for the delay in writing about my journey ...

I live in the lower part of a 3-level house.  The landlady who owns the house is almost never home, spending most of her time with her lover outside of town somewhere.  So, it's very quiet.

When I first moved in, there were all kinds of house noises to get used to ... creaking, cracking, etc.  but, over the months I have learned to diagnose them and hardly hear them at all.  As I started filtering them out other noises became more noticable. Noises not identifiable as "house noises."

Quite often I hear footsteps above me ... 1, 2, 3, 4 ... as if someone has entered the living room upstairs.  These are quite distinct.  So much so, that I will look outside to see if the landlady must have come home and I didn't notice.

I've heard doors and cupboards shut, too.  Once, when I was in the common area in the laundry room, the door to the upstairs opened.  Thinking that maybe she hadn't shut it firmly enough, I ignored it.  A little while later, when I came back to put the clothes into the dryer, the door was shut.  And locked!

My bedroom is below the spare room/office which the landlady never uses even when she IS home.  On more than one ocassion I have heard a chair slide back accross the hardwood floor as if someone stood up from the desk.  Then a half-dozen steps.  Then no more noise. 

The first two times this happened I let myself into her house (I have her key for emergencies -- and since I thought someone may have gotten into the house, I count that as an emergency) and looked around.  I looked into the office and the chair was neatly tucked under the desk.

Hmmmm.

More later.