The clock is creeping toward midnight. I can't sleep. The drumbeat coming from next door is like the tell-tale heart, slowly driving me nuts. Even with all the windows shut, the air condition running and earplugs stuffed in my ears, I can hear it.
All summer the neighbors on the north side (renters who moved in last fall) have partied. They have a stereo set up in their garage that they turn up full volume, then retreat to their deck to party. Sometimes it's on the weekend, sometimes it's in the middle of the week. Sometimes it's an all nighter and sometimes it's just for an hour. Monday the music was still blaring at 11:00 p.m. I finally blew up the air mattress and slept in the living room; the only room in the house where I couldn't hear them. Saturday, when the party started after midnight I broke. I called the police. Ten minutes later blissful silence. I haven't heard a peep out of them since.
Now the quiet neighbors on the south side have taken up the challenge. It's almost midnight and they're in the garage with the music full volume and have been reveling since around seven. When I let the dog out, they asked me if the music was too loud. At first I was going to do the Minnesota Nice Thing and lie and say no. Instead I very nicely asked if they could just turn it down a notch. They didn't have to turn it off, just turn it down. The neighbor, who I genuinely like, seemed horrified at the thought that they were being too loud and I could hear her asking her guests to turn it down. Obviously, they didn't listen.
I'm not against partying. They're not a bunch of drunks, they're just having a good time. But I'm not. Maybe I'm getting old, but more than a party these days, I really enjoy a good night's sleep. What ever happened to common courtesy? It seems the more crowded this planet gets, the ruder people get. There's a since of entitlement among people these days. No one has the right to infringe on their rights, but they don't give a damn about how they infringe on yours. The only right I want at the moment is the right to a good night's sleep. But the beat goes on. And on. And on.
7 comments:
And then it ends with screaming and crying, squad cars and parametics. I really gotta move.
good lord!!!!!!!!!!t what a nightmare!!
13 yrs ago i bought a log home on 4 acres, private road, surrounded by 80 acres of timber. ahhh. won't have to deal with neighbors ever again. wrong. the previous owners of log home still owned the 80, and they asked their nephew and son (both in twenties) to check on it now and then for them, as they'd moved to oregon. hah! the nephew set up a tent and remained on the property spring to late fall. i could toss a rock and hit him from my front door. every weekend it was a kegger, with usually about 50 cars, signs to the party on the highway, screaming, music, fireworks that would scare my horse. they parked in my yard and destroyed electric fencing. hundreds of beer cans scattered everywhere. i called the cops once, but it was outside city limits so noise made no difference. they could make as much noise as they wanted. then, and i'm not making this up, a race track was built near the start of my lane. :D i thought i'd never be able to sell the place, but it sold in a month. the new owners bought the adjoining property, so the parties stopped.
That's terrible! I guess there's no place a person can go for peace and quiet anymore. Some idiot in a car went on a rampage and flattened a fence, side-swiped a bunch of cars on the street and hit a guy. I wish now I had called the cops to complain about the music earlier in the evening. Maybe they would have broke up the party and all this could have been prevented.
the upside is that you have solid confirmation that you aren't overreacting. i always start to question myself in these situations.
Yeah, I always worry about over-reacting. I still am. This morning I abandoned my lawn mower when I saw the tire tracks across my yard and locked myself in the house.
First of all, you are not over-reacting. I would have done the same thing and called the police. Your situation sounds very familiar to problems we had 20 years ago. As a matter of fact, the exact reason we moved to the country. Good luck and sorry for your trouble Marilyn :(
The neighbor came over and apologized. Like that makes everything better. And get this: he's upset, too!! For once I wasn't nice, and told him exactly what I thought of him bringing violence like that into our neighborhood. But he didn't, his mother invited the criminal over. So, of course it wasn't his fault. They haven't caught the guy either. That makes me feel great.
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