I'm a little crabby this morning. I slept fine, which is kind of unusual. It's the things that happen when the day gets going that seem to make me feel crabby.
I live in an apartment complex with about 8-10 units. Admittedly, my unit is probably in the worst location, but with so few people living here you'd think it wouldn't be so impossible to have an acceptable noise limit and nuisance factor.
During the week some of the residents leave for work early for their commute. Since my unit faces the parking lot I hear them warming up their cars. It's made worse in that they're all in covered spots that tend to echo and amplify the sound. They slam the door going out to the parking area so hard it makes my wall shake. I deal with this by putting a pillow over my head until I'm ready to wake up. Nothing I can do about it.
The laundry room is on the other side of me. It supposedly has hours of operation, though I think that the residents consider it a suggestion more than a rule. I'm amazed at how hard it is to get in and use the two washers and dryers. There must be some very clean people living here. It starts before 6 a.m. some days and goes well past 11 p.m. most days. I don't mind it so much except when they put "rocks" in the dryer and the racket of them thumping around is deafening. (probably shoes in reality, though why you'd put shoes in the dryer is beyond me) The other noise maker over there is when the mothers bring all 6 kids that are under 12 into the tiny echoey laundry room and they run around screaming, yelling and bouncing off the walls. Oy!
The hallway just outside the front door is like a tunnel. It bounces all the sounds off the stucco walls better than most opera houses. I have no idea how many times people have come home at ungodly hours yelling and laughing. (I'd guess they're drunk deaf and need to be that loud to hear each other) Others crank their music so loud that it leaks out of their apartment and into the hallway. I usually turn up my TV or music. If they don't like my country music blaring they'll have to turn down that garbage they call music.
So this morning, a sunday morning, I was feeling blessed to have the laundry room quiet, no noise from the hallway and only one car that idled early. Then a kid came out of his apartment with a soccer ball. There are no yards here at the complex. Yup, he went to the parking area and started to kick that damned ball around the carports and against the wall. My wall of course. I waited a few minutes, hoping he was waiting for a parent to come downstairs and take him out to the park. Then when I'd had enough I walked out the front door just in time to see his feet scurrying up the stairs. I yelled out to him "Hey! Can you kick that thing around somewhere else? It's making a lot of noise". To his credit, he said okay and ran upstairs.
Do I need to be as loud and obnoxious as they are? Does that even solve anything? Why would you do things that you're sure are going to annoy the shit out of your neighbors? They'd better hope they never need a favor from me.
