One might say I am easily startled.
The last scenario where I want to be surprised by a loud noise in is in the middle of the night when I’m trying to sleep, just like most people.
I wasn’t quite aware that there was something going on with my air conditioning unit. In hindsight, I guess I noticed that the cool air coming from the vents wasn’t so cool anymore. I guess it continued to slip my mind until this past evening. I was in the middle of a rather comfortable and enjoyable night’s rest when the most horrible noise imaginable reached my ears. There was a persistent screaming noise that was only getting louder and louder. Having been woken up from a deep sleep, my foggy brain could not make sense of it and I was terrified. I thought that a literal banshee had come for me and was screaming about my impending doom, but it turned out to be the air conditioner. I did not realize that until I had already gotten out of bed and braved the hallway. As soon as I realized that the air conditioner unit was making this horrible noise, I rushed to shut it off immediately. I called out an HVAC technician the very next day, quite interested to hear what on Earth could have been making that noise. It turns out the noise was the result of a refrigerant leak. The HVAC technician told me I was wise to turn off my air conditioner unit, as this refrigerant leak could have posed some safety problems if I had not. Why would I have not turned it off when it was literally screaming at me!?