It is an utterly gorgeous day here. Why am I inside at the computer instead of out in my garden? Well, I was in my garden, enjoying an utterly gorgeous day, until my next-door neighbor (and by “next-door” I mean the other half of a twin) turned on the stereo (in the sunroom about back, with the speakers located approximately 10-15’ from my head) and cranked it up to 11 – oh, and nudged up the bass a bit, just in case anyone had any fillings that needed loosening.
What’s she listening to? The Band, better than rap or something, and not music I necessarily hate – but not what I want to be forced to listen to on an utterly gorgeous day when I just want to chill in the garden.
Yup, try talking. Music is funny - the longer you listen, the less able you are to personally judge how loud it is for yourself. So you keep nudging the dials just a touch more. Maybe that is the case? Me on the other hand, if it’s something I like, I’d be yelling over the fence “crank it up”.
Seriously, this has worked for me. In my case it was rap, which isn’t my thing but I can deal with it if it’s not blasting into my home. I went over and asked if he would mind turning it down and he did.
I was nice about it. I introduced myself (even shook his hand) and asked if would mind turning down the music. He responded nicely and turned it down.
Unfortunately, the loud music reoccurred several times over the next month or two and I had to go over each time and nicely ask him to turn it down, but he eventually got it through his thick skull with apparently no hard feelings.
I fucking hate that oblivious noisy asshole shit. For example, now you see these asswipes on motorcycles with defective mufflers and radios. So to hear their shitty ass-rock over their defective muffler they really have to crank it up.
What this amounts to is some hunk of junk so loud it takes 45 seconds after it passes before it’s far enough away to have a conversation without shouting.
Yet if I were to shoot one his tires out I’d somehow be the bad guy.
I’m one who would be telling them to crank up The Band.
Have you ever tried those Bose headphones that filter noise? They don’t completely kill all of the sound, but they make it bearable. And if you are connected to your own music, that usually solves the problem.
They are a little expensive, but they are worth their weight in gold if you travel a lot and end up seated over the wings or if your S.O. watches all of the football games that are broadcast.
My neighbor’s kid 2 doors down practices his trumpet all spring and summer long. He seems to be indoors, but with open windows, he may as well be in my yard. He’s good, but I really don’t want to hear trumpeting scales when I could be hearing birds. So I’m stuck with being the crotchety neighbor if I ask him to practice in the basement or shut his windows, which any normal person would know to do.
If anyone had the stereo in the sunroom on that loud, I’d be over there in no time. Unless it was an unusual event like a party.
Eh, I’m back. She just played the one CD while she was cleaning up the adjacent patio area. and my snit was momentary. She and I have been neighbors for 20 years, and it’s not worth saying anything, really – the noise rarely lasts long, and I’m sure she thinks my music (which she hears when she’s sitting on her front porch, since I leave my front door open in that kind of weather) is equally annoying. Probably more, since I listen to some weird shit. Plus she feeds my cats when I’m out of town, etc.
IOW – a blip in a pretty good neighborly relationship, I just blowing off a little steam.
I’m just so damn tired of listening to all the lawn care that can only happen on gorgeous weekend days or perfect evenings after work. The best, and often only times I could actually use my deck. Yeah, I know. This is suburbia and god forbid your perfect golf-course Tru-Greened chemical lawn should grow more than a quarter inch before it is cut again.
Sorry for the brief hijack - I wouldn’t be able to hear over the tractor mowers if anyone was playing obnoxious music out here.
The other day, I was sitting at my computer at 1AM, listening to MP3s with my headphones on, and I heard a thumping bass that wasn’t in time with my music. I took off my headphones and heard that someone was playing music loud enough for me to hear through my walls and over my headphones. I went outside to investigate - turns out that it wasn’t my neighbors, it wasn’t the folks across the street, and it wasn’t the house behind mine, it was the house ACROSS THE STREET from the house behind mine(and there’s about 100 feet of lawn between our two houses). They were having some sort of lawn party at 1AM. I went back in, put my headphones on and turned it up louder than I usually do. The noise stopped at 2AM.
The next day I went out and got their street address, and looked up the non-emergency number for the police dept. Not gonna happen again unanswered.
I swear, subwoofers are the worst invention ever. You can listen to your music quite loudly without bothering most ppl, but if you have one of those hooked up and thumping loudly, the whole county can hear you. That crap TRAVELS. I have one hooked up to my computer that came with my flat-panel Monsoon speakers, but I have it turned down to the minimum setting. It adds warmth, it doesn’t rattle the mucus out of my lungs.
**@ FILB **— You only go reporting incidents like that to the authorities if it is a regular occurrence. Perhaps that household told all its nearby neighbors they were having a party? Should they have to inform everybody within a certain radius?
That household should inform everyone within the radius of their music.
Personally, if I can hear someone else’s music over my own, especially if I have earphones on, I report it after a certain time. There ARE noise ordinances. And if they’re going to do that on a regular basis, I want a paper trail of each instance.
Yes, but not everyone within hearing radius of the music is going to be disturbed. Should they also provide earplugs for those with more sensitive ears? As I said, if it is a one-off, you suck it up and tolerate it. Just because you( not you personally.) haven’t got any friends to invite round for a party, it shouldn’t mean everyone else has to live like monks.
