posted on September 24, 2004 @ 12:53 pm
owen bought a new tv, a pretty flat screen 27-inch. the entertainment system i've got is like three inches too narrow for it, though, so we've got to find a cheap one that's big enough. the tv i wanted was like five thousand-something dollars. alas, he said that was too expensive.
i made a pretty nice financial haul from various family members and got to buy three books (including the 11th in series of unfortunate events!!) and a series shirt. yay for birthdays.
i had a little scuffle with my neighbor the night before last. he yelled at me for a while and i tried yelling back, but couldn't really talk over him. well, this is the letter i wrote my apartment manager should he complain to her about it.
Despite what the man in 109 may have anyone believe, I am not a hammer-wielding psycho on a daily basis. During our confrontation last night, he wouldn�t allow me to speak at all, talking over me every time I even tried and forcing me to stop short, so I will tell you. Possibly you can relay this to him.
I have a long-standing history with noisy neighbors, dating even back to when I lived in East Texas with my family. For me, the pleasant, quiet approach has never produced positive results, which ultimately leaves me receiving dirty looks in the parking lot. I�m not trying to come across as an evil overlord; I just want to be able to sleep during the week.
When I first moved into my current apartment, I could hear the television and guitar from next door on a regular basis. After pounding on the wall a few times and knocking at his door twice, being ignored each time, I wrote a note and taped it to his front door. In this note, I informed him of my early work schedule (I awake every morning at 6:00 a.m.) and asked if he would please not be so noisy at night, ending it in thanks. The next day the note was gone, and he quieted down; I could only assume this meant he received it.
Since then I have had no problems with his television or guitar. When it�s in the afternoon, early evening, or weekends, I�m perfectly content hearing it because I�m not trying to sleep. During the week nights, however, as it recently has been, it presents a problem.
Not being a physics whiz, I cannot tell you why it�s possible to hear his guitar in my bedroom, but it is. Rarely do I hear his television while in bed, but I can hear his guitar at the same volume as in the living room. This was the case last night. I heard his television and hit the wall. He turned the volume down but continued playing his guitar.
Based upon my previous results when trying to contact him, I took my hammer when I went to his door. For the sole reason he has ignored my previous attempts to talk to him in person, I knocked on his door with my hammer. I told him, "Turn your shit down so I can sleep," and he started yelling. He continued on for however long we were out there, refusing to listen to anything I said.
He tried to make himself out to be a friendly neighbor, stating he tells me "Hi" when he sees Owen and me during the day, yet I walk past with my head down and shoulders slumped. One could take his word for it if any of the circumstances were even remotely true. For one, I am never out during the day. When I worked nights I slept until 3:30 p.m. before my 4:00 p.m. shift, and now that I work days I don�t even get home until 5:00 p.m. I did, however, see him once, soon after I moved in, on my way to my door. We exchanged hellos and went inside our respective apartments. That is the single time I have ever seen him. Secondly, Owen mentioned just last night how strange it is that he never sees anyone in the complex, other than the people who always sit on their patio facing the parking lot and a girl he�s encountered twice from 111.
I fully realize that living in an apartment I am going to hear my neighbors. I listen to the girl upstairs stomp around all day, I ignore the incessantly barking dogs to the best of my ability, but my only request is that it�s quiet late at night when I�m trying to sleep. The man in 109 repeatedly said it was "only" 11:00 o�clock, as if it were the same as 4:00 o�clock in the afternoon. "Only 11:00 o�clock" is late to me, especially given I naturally wake up four to five times during the night.
At one point he scoffed and asked, "So if I hear your TV am I supposed to come banging on your door asking you to turn it down?" The answer to that is, of course, yes, and the operative word in that sentence is "if." I keep my television at a low volume because it is against his wall. If there were a way to position it against my bedroom wall, I would prefer that, but the cable outlet isn�t there. The stereo in my room is against the living room wall so that the people in 111 cannot hear it. I actually do take into consideration the fact my neighbors do not want to hear what I�m watching and listening to, even during the day and on the weekends. When I told him he should come to me if I ever caused him a disturbance, he laughed as if the very idea of being disturbed by a television was a joke. Repeatedly he said, "It�s just the TV." Whatever it may be, it�s bothering me when I�m trying to sleep.
What upset me the most is that he told me I never left him a note and never tried knocking, not that he never received the note and never heard me knocking. The note I left was torn off of a payment confirmation page for my cell phone, which I still have ripped in half in my records, and maybe I just didn�t knock loudly enough. By the end of our clash I tried apologizing but couldn�t get a word in edge-wise. I�m sorry if he never received my note and if he never heard me knocking, therefore making my arrival last night much more uncalled for. Try as I might, he wouldn�t listen to me.
Additionally, he informed me it was impossible to hear his noise in my bedroom. I asked if that were true, what reason would I have to bother him? Speechless, he merely shook his head in confusion. Many nights I can hear something in the living room yet not in the bedroom, in which case I don�t bother him at all. Owen suggested the sound possibly traveled through ducts, but considering neither of us engineered this complex we�re not completely sure.
Another of his arguments is that he plays an acoustic guitar, and that it�s not loud. I played the guitar for a few years and have a singer/songwriter friend who only performs acoustically. Being well-acquainted with this instrument, and the fact I can hear it through our walls, I�m convinced his definition of "loud" must be ear-splitting.
As aforementioned, during the day and weekends, hearing his television or guitar isn�t in the least a problem. All I ask is that he respect my appropriate sleeping hours, which apparently are drastically different from his if 11:00 o�clock is not late. Over the past month I have been living with viral bronchitis because I quit smoking, which peaked last Friday when I left work early and had to dissuade Owen from taking me to the hospital because I couldn�t breathe. In the past month I have received so little sleep and suffered from so much pain, stressed about moving Owen down here from Pennsylvania and learning new tasks at work, I admit I am more excitable than usual. Taking a hammer to his door was a bit extreme I suppose, but I was only trying to make myself heard. If I thought he would answer, I would have knocked normally.
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