And they’re back :( August 2, 2008
Posted by Raul in random thoughts.trackback
The weekend of Blogathon felt really weird. My upstairs neighbours were making hardly any noise and I spent extended periods of time submerged in a silent atmosphere. After Blogathon, I learned that they had gone away for a week. Day after day, I woke up whenever my body wanted me to and felt so calm because there was no noise.
“Wow, this is what quiet enjoyment is supposed to be“, I thought to myself. I went to bed whenever and woke up like any normal people. But everything good in life has an end. Last night, as I was about to put my head on my pillow, I heard “THUMP, THUMP, THUMP” on my ceiling.
They were back 😦
Random Thoughts of a Student of the Environment 
Raul,
I bought my townhouse across the street from an empty lot… 3 months after moving in they broke ground. I feel for you! They start banging at 7:00 am and are running a cement truck as I type. The price we pay for being in the middle of all the fun!
Raul,
a bottle of Red has a way of making things quiet after a while. 🙂
I find that earplugs have been essential since I moved out of my parents’ place, both in Vancouver and Toronto, when I was living at Gerard and Yonge (thankfully facing the alley – but garbage trucks would come by at 5am and do a little backing-up dance to get out of the narrow alleys). I have the added benefit of sleeping deeply enough and moving a little bit so that the earplugs fall out in time for me to hear my morning alarm.
so it’s not just me! the Moderne nightclub opened, and the patrons do what 20+ kids are supposed to do – come out drunk, loud, and hang out at high volumes til 3am. Noise! I swear I’m going to move to a secluded cabin in the woods (with wifi of course) and learn to grow my own food.
As a friend AND co-resider (bsmt suite #2) of R’s, I too am forced to endure the shrieking family a.k.a. The Hellions and their Demon Spawn; that they were away for 5 days was bliss and yes Karen earplugs ARE essential.
I kinda find it ironic tho that R yearns to be a father (“I want to be a dad” post). I mean, isn’t constant exposure to said Demon Spawn enough to make you re-think the reproduction idea? What if you get a HellChild? It’s not like you can save the receipt and turn him in for an iPhone… you might want to re-think fatherhood very very carefully…
Raul, you’ve probably covered this before, but what has your landlord done about it? He is required to do something, and I am realizing perhaps it is your landlord living overhead, but even still they would have to do something.
I feel your pain, I really do! My landlord had a habit of coming home after midnight in his noisy truck and then opening the garage door to let himself in — just himself. Not the truck. And maybe because of his schedule the kids (ages 1.5 and 3 or so), or at least the older one, wouldn’t go to bed until after 8. My 7-year-old niece’s bedtime is 8:00. My sister said it’s karma for what I did to them when they lived under my floor. Trust me, these parents tried their damnedest to keep the children quiet but the new cork floors did nothing and I suspect they weren’t aware of just how much noise actually comes through (heating ducts, etc.). I just put up with it while I lived there, but I DID complain about his friends’ ciggy smoke wafting indoors!
I hear ya. My apartment overlooks a sort of courtyard of apartment buildings with trees, trees that are full of ravens and rooftops that are full of seagulls. And, of course, in Chinatown the street washers run during the only time the birds are quiet, then waking up the birds. And once the birds pipe down at dawn the garbage trucks start up and I swear to god those people put it in Reverse and stomp on the brake rather than use Park.
I’m really not a murderer, but I’d make an exception for the guy who invented that beeping backup alarm. Also, if I had a gun there’d be a lot more gunpowder in the air and a lot fewer seagulls and ravens.
You have to pay attention to the fine nuances of the noise before making any concrete accusations. “thump, thump, thump” – kids, “boom, boom, boom” – playing rockband, “bang, bang, bang” – gangs closure, “yes, yes, yes” – precedes what would turn in a few years into “thump, thump”.
Thanks everyone for commenting 🙂
@ Flash – Yeah, I’ve told my landlord. They have done nothing. One surprise though. The kid has been astonishingly less annoying today, and my neighbours seem to have been out of the house for a substantial amount of time. So that’s provided much needed respite (I’ve been feeling a tad anti-social this weekend, so it helped)