8.05.2009

neighbors...why?

to the left: they're alright. they have a lot of yappy dogs that they like to scream at when they bark. the human screaming is worse than the dogs barking, but it usually doesn't last long. their cats also like to hang out in our driveway and probably poop on our lawn (landlord freaked out once about finding cat poop on the lawn), but the lawn isn't our responsibility and we're never on it, so whatever. when a car drove by and knocked the across-the-street neighbor's side mirror off, they chased after the car trying to stop it and/or get the license plate number. they say hello and wave back when we say hi.

behind: i don't get it. an older lady and man that seem to be a couple, a young guy in his 20s, and a young girl in her 20s in a three bedroom. we thought the older lady might be the younger two's mom, but i just saw the girl talking to a lady the other night in a random car in the driveway who she called "mom." i thought the girl and the guy might be a couple as they share a car, but then i saw her holding hands with some other guy near our shared trash cans the other day. they say hello and wave back when we say hi.

to the right: the house was vacant when we moved in, and soon after, a for sale sign went up. starting from last week, there started to be construction sounds coming from inside the house. at 1 AM. f. the next day, they took the sale sign down. at some point, the bear saw a bunch of youngish kids (high school age, maaaaybe early college) and an old man moving stuff in. i saw some high school age kids moving a piano in a few days ago.

two nights ago, they started playing piano, clarinet, sax, and singing at 11:30 PM. all the racket lasted until about 1:30 AM. oh, and it all sounded pretty bad. since it's so hot, our windows were open, theirs were open, and we could hear everything loud and clear. yesterday, there was some bad piano playing and singing during the day, but it only lasted about 30 minutes. last night, they started up again at midnight. at 12:30, the bear went to go ask them to keep it down. they stopped. at around 1, they closed all their windows and started up again, but our windows were closed by that time, too, so it was bearable.

oh, and when the bear went over to ask for quiet, there were like 8-10 high school kids in the house. no adults that he could see. ok, so he admitted that maaaaaaaaybe they're first years in college. but the house was for SALE, not lease. even in this market, it was a decent chunk of change for a bunch of kids who probably have no credit history. or the owner could have taken it off the market and decided to lease it instead, but who would rent a 3 bedroom to 8-10 kids? what's the old man's role in all this? and why don't they understand you should keep it quiet after 10 PM in an otherwise very quiet, residential neighborhood?

we went out to dinner about three hours ago. they were hammering something when we left. they are still hammering right now.

yes, i'm nosy. yes, i could probably find the answers to these questions if i went and tried to be friendlier with my neighbors, but c'mon, this is [near] LA. despite the quiet, residential air of our new neighborhood, we're still in an urban area. at least i say hello.

7 comments:

  1. I can't put my finger on exactly why, but I thought this was a genius post.

    You clinched it with "at least I say hello."

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  2. yikes! despite all the grammatical errors? (i was multitasking while blogging). fixed now.

    and thanks. maybe it's because i'm admitting what a voyeur i am?

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  3. Just call the cops anonymously on them. Nobody should be making that much noise at 1 in the morning (except me, of course).

    And yes, your backyard neighbors are weird :)

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  4. I find all the guessing about the relationships fascinating. Are they boyfriend-girlfriend, or is that the dude's mom? lol.

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  5. I agree. Genius post.

    Although it makes me really jittery about my own upcoming move.

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  6. The noise stuff would drive me batty. Batty!

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  7. i think i must be a butthole, because i pay absolutely no attention to my neighbors.

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