558 - What's that noise?

We were in West Virginia. My wife was at a conference. Some other people at the conference lived close by and invited us over. They mentioned they had a small problem outside their house but try not to let it bother us.

So off we go to their house. We were staying in a smaller town anyway and they lived miles from there. We went down small curvy country roads. Then turned off the small road to go down a smaller road to get to their property. They basically live in the middle of the woods.

We rounded a curve not far from their house when I saw it. I said to my wife, "what the hell is that"! She said, "Oh don't you remember? I told you they were drilling for natural gas right across the road from them". There it was. A 150 foot drilling rig set up about 600 to 700 feet from our friends front door. It was lit up like a shopping mall at night. And the noise - 24/7. Imagine two steel plates scraping together every 5 seconds all day and night. Loud enough that you had to raise your voice to talk.

And then there was the vibration. Standing in their front yard you could feel the ground vibrating. I asked them how long this has been going on. They said two months (24/7 remember). I asked when they were going to be done. Don't know. Did they get anything for the inconvenience? Nope. Since they're not drilling on their property they don't get anything.

Their bedroom is in the front of the house. They have been sleeping on the enclosed back porch to get away from the noise.

So we later said GOOD BYE. WE'LL COME BACK AGAIN WHEN THEIR DONE DRILLING.