Hectic day here. It started just after 7 a.m. -- way before I want to wake up, but nature called. As I performed my middle-aged-guy ritual in the bathroom, I heard a strange noise coming from the next room over, where we have our TV.

It sounded like some kind of drilling noise, or maybe some feedback through a speaker. I figured there must have been a short in some electronic system or another, but the TV was off -- only the cable box was on. I turned it off, too, and headed back to bed. Seven in the morning is the middle of the night for me.

No sooner had I closed my eyes than the noise started up again. I hustled back into the TV room for further inquiry. Was our cat, Gloria, doing the extreme version of one of her hairball expulsions? It was too loud for her snoring. No, Gloria sat lazily on the glider, wide awake but in no distress. Like me, she was keying into the drilling sound, which was definitely coming from the wall behind the TV. This is the south-facing wall on the second floor of the house.

What the...? I threw on some pants and shoes, stumbled down the stairs, and headed out into the morning drizzle to see what was going on on the other side of that wall.

When I got directly under the spot where the noise seemed to be coming from, the woodpecker saw me and flew away. He had been doing his work under the eaves, as he stood on one of the little decorative buttress thingies that add charm to our older home.

But he didn't go far -- just as far as the chimney above. I cussed his little pointy-beaked a*s and went back to try to catch another hour or two of sleep.

I hope he doesn't return. I'd hate to have to start checking out BB guns on eBay.