I had come back from a nice book sale for the local library. It was the second day and all the good books were taken, so it was now “everything you can shove in a bag” for $1. I got a nice, big bag full of books. I ate on the way home, and was full and groggy. Had nothing more to do, perfect time for a nap, wouldn’t you say? So said I.
I listened to a book on tape I had bought the previous day for $1: The Masterharper of Pern by Anne McCaffrey. Very relaxing. Once I couldn’t stay awake any longer, I stopped the tape and fell asleep.
zzzzz
*zzzzz
**zzzzz
zzzVEEEEEERRRRR!!! *** THOSE BASTARDS! My inconsiderate neighbors, the Walkers, had decided it was neccessary to leaf-suck their driveway at 12:47 in the day! What fuckwit has the compulsion, feels the need, to see that his driveway is clear of leaves? Why are leafsuckers even made? And as I watched, he went out into the road to leafsuck! He needed to see that the road was also leaf-free. This is what was so all-glorious important that the damned pig felcher needed to wake me from my pleasant, wonderful, dreamfulled nap?
Needless to say, I am not impressed by his reasoning.
note: this isn’t the first time these people have robbed me of my sleep, but they usually only do it between 6:30 and midnight on Fridays in the summer. This began 3 years ago, when the husband-type neighbor began his midlife crisis, built a garage (5" inches from the property line-- is the permitted?), bought a motorcycle (is revving the engine for minutes at a time bad for the bike?), and had a drunken party in celebration in his new garage, complete with drunken floozies (I got flashed and they commented on my sexual practices, or lack thereof. Specifically said I “wasn’t getting any” and that that was my problem).
Boy am I glad I’m moving out in a month. These floundering jackasses need something installed up their backdoor, and I hope it comes with spikes.
Judging from the jerks who’ve moved in near us recently, every rev of your motorcycle’s engine puts another horse into the power tube, or something. Mufflers are frowned upon, and that universal 25-mph residential speed limit only applies during daylight hours, so never, ever ride when the sun’s out.
About as bad as the people two lots down who are building a new house. 7:00 AM plus 4 seconds was when the generators, compressors, nail guns, and 15 amp cirular saws began their assault on “the peace”.
I feel compelled to share with you guys an only slightly related story. Just to show you how much worse I had it.
In the summer of 1998, I was shipped off to Haifa, Israel, to spend two months in an intensive Hebrew program (ulpan) at the University of Haifa. I lived in the dorms at the university. Well, the university was apparently trying to do a shitload of work at the dorms before the regular fall term. Never mind that people were living there during the summer! Every morning I was woken up by the sound of jackhammers right outside my window. At 5 am. And they continued all day. AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!
I still feel rage at this.
(This was only part of the nightmare that was my ulpan. Oh no, memories I thought I had repressed are coming back!)
I don’t mind such stuff during daylight hours. What I do mind is waking to the thumo thump fuck this and that rap music on Christmas morning… in my mind nothing in the world can top hearing that garbage at 7am on that day. I swear I ain’t embellishing… I was living with baltotop at the time and we both couldn’t believe it.
Easy to find out, if you were planning on staying around for the fireworks. Zoning bylaws typically include lot set-back restrictions, and can be determined by a (typically not-so-simple) phonecall to the city planning department. But having brought City Hall’s attention to this infraction of their (nearly) senseless rules, you may have to hold the beaurocrat’s hand through the fix-it process. On second thought, why don’t you just move out in a month or so?
I love this argument. As a mostly celibate, mostly single person, I find that people who think with their sexuality (usually unimaginatively at that) are very threatened by the rest of us who do actually use our little grey cells. Their cure seems to be to get us laid, so we’ll stop that thinking crap.
anything that burns gasoline should have a muffler. leaf blowers/suckers, pressure washers (my neighbors took 4 weekends to do their driveway and deck), and motorcycles.
This is why I live in an industrial park, those office/warehouse spaces that rent for less than a house or apartment.
After five o’clock on weekdays and all weekends and holidays the neighborhood is dead. Dead. Not a soul. No one. No parties, no loud music, no leafblowers, nothing but peace and quite.
Um, let’s see. Asking them to maybe do their leaf-sucking at another time wouldn’t help me get back to sleep, now would it? And it most certainly is leaf-sucking, you unobservant oaf. I should know. This was pointed out to me by the husband’s bink of a wife when I pointed out that leaf-blowing, then cutting the grass, then leaf-blowing again wasn’t the most intelligent order of operations.
Also, since you seem to have difficulty with actually reading the OP, I’ll say it again. The problem with leaf-sucking in the afternoon is that it woke me up. That was the entire point of the post. Duh.
I agree that leaf-sucking, when one can mulch them up nicely with the mower, is pretty silly, and I’ve seen my neighbors do the same. However, wouldn’t the lawnmower interrupt your nap as well?
I just simply cannot see your point, here. It’s the middle of the day - how can a reasonable person know when you will choose to take your naps? Should they come over, or call, to find out if you are napping?
Perhaps you should put out a big sign - “I am napping now! Quiet, please!”
I’m just glad I don’t live next door to the princess and the pea - sheesh!
Seriously, when would you have them do their yardwork? If I had to pick a time, I’d say Saturday afternoon is the perfect time to do noisy things. He’s probably not home in the afternoon on weekdays, and a lot of people like Sunday naps, so that would be even worse.
Y’all need a sense of humor. I think the OP knows her rant isn’t really reasonable, but she felt annoyed, reason or no. I mean, when I get woken up from a nap, I’m pissed off, even if the person who woke me hasn’t done anything wrong. I took the OP as lighthearted annoyance masked in divine fury. I could be wrong, of course.
Ack, evil lack of edit. She was already annoyed by other stuff the neighbors had done wrong, so this normally mundane crime just irritates the hell out of her, even more so than usual.