This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Inside if it's nice and quiet and I'm drinking a cup of coffee and then suddenly there's a loud "RUFF" resonating off the walls... it puts me on edge for a good minute.

Likewise. The closest I've come to shitting myself as an adult was recently when my wife knocked over a clothes airer, which made the most cacophonous noise. The effect was roughly quadrupled by the fact that she realised she had knocked it and did that sharp-intake-of-breath thing that is usually reserved for nervous car passengers. That absolutely maximised my sensitivity for whatever was going to happen next (which I couldn't see) and there was then a moment's pause, while the airer teetered precariously, before falling over with a sound like satan throwing his drumkit down the stairs.