Monday, June 23, 2014

Change of Plans

Well, my plan for stitching on the patio yesterday afternoon was shot to hell and back by some very inconsiderate neighbors.  When you live in a townhouse development, you expect a certain amount of noise to carry over from one householder's property to the next.  But you don't expect to be blasted out of your seat by music that is amped up to the nth degree.  It was so bad that I ended up calling the police at 2:00pm.  We were indoors, with the air conditioner and the TV on and we still couldn't hear the dialogue of the show because of the reverberating bass from two houses down the row!  The police visit was effective for about an hour or two but, after they left, the noise level gradually increased to even worse levels and continued till 10:48pm.  Yes, I noted the time.  I had wanted to call the police again but my husband feared there would be keyed cars or bricks thrown through a window in our future if I did.  With the exception of this one family, this is a nice peaceful little neighborhood.  But they throw these loud parties nearly every other weekend for the whole summer.  It's been going on for five years now.  People call the police frequently but there doesn't seem to be any consequence, at least nothing serious enough to end the problem.  When they first moved in, their kids were babies but now the oldest is big enough to play basketball.  Most weekends, he gets up at 6:00am and from then until after dark, all you can hear is the ker thunk, ker think of a bouncing basketball.  He does this on weekdays, too but only until he has to catch the school bus.  All I can say is, he'd better make the NBA all-star line up with all that practice.  The parents have no concern for the peace of the neighborhood, so why should he.  I feel sorry for the younger brother, though.  He must suffer from a mental disability because sometimes, when he is outdoors, he simply screams continuously and incoherently, no words, not even in his native Spanish.  Nobody attends to his needs and frustrations, apparently.  Physically, he is well cared for and since he is of school age, I have to assume he is having his needs met by the local school district.  But here, we are treated to these semi-regular bouts of screaming for no reason that anyone can see.  We have less than 6 months left on our mortgage, our taxes are reasonable, our utility expenses fairly modest, and the space is perfect for us.  So I don't want to move.  But I pray daily that this family will!



Since I couldn't stitch outdoors yesterday, I stitched indoors.  Here is a photo of my progress.  I hope to finish this piece in a day or two.  I should be able to put in an hour or two this evening and begin work on the second dragon.

5 comments:

Jo who can't think of a clever nickname said...

Poor you, it sounds awful. In England we would get a noise abatement order or an anti-social behaviour order through the courts. Then if they disobeyed they could go to prison. The noise abatement orders can also impound sound equipment.
The younger boy may have an ASD which is why he screams like that, he may be as upset by the noise as you are!
As you say, the most you can do is pray they move soon! Do they rent or own? All the neighbours could club together and buy them out!
At least your dragons are looking good.

Linda said...

Wonderful progress Regina. Sorry to hear about the noisy neighbors.

Linda

Julie said...

Hope the problem with your noisy neighbours is soon resolved, how awful for you. The only noises I heard this weekend were the lawnmovers as people cut their grass.. on the other hand the smells of the BBQ's was very distracting and i nearly hopped over the fence to ask if they needed any help eating their lunch!!!

Great progress on the stitching

Dani - tkdchick said...

Looking awesome!!! I haven't stitched this one yet.

Maggee said...

Been there, with noisy neighbors. In fact, this past weekend, when I went to bed, I noticed an unusual number of cars driving up and down the street. I checked a couple of neighbors' houses for signs of partying, but there were none. So, I watched... and saw that the 'kids' were all headed down our street to the apartments across the way. But I also noticed they would be gone just a few minutes. THAT usually means they are picking up drugs... so I was thinking about calling the police when--ta-da! They arrived! In force! They blocked off the street by the apartments, and were apparently 'herding' them back to their cars...I watched some of them doing obscene gestures to the police and cursing and such. Just great! Our future... But at least the police were aware. What is really annoying to me is when we FINALLY ever have a mild day/night, so I can open the windows, the stoopid ADULT neighbors around the corner start a bonfire (which is illegal) and the smoke comes in my house, so I must close the windows! It is so inconsiderate! Okay--off my soapbox now... Great progress despite the interruptions!