Tuesday, October 27, 2009

A Rant.

Why are people so incredibly rude? It feels like - my entire adult life - I've been surrounded by people that don't care about their neighbors.

Recently, we were woken up at 2am. That's AM. A dog was barking. He never took a breath - just barked endlessly, for about an hour and a half. We thought maybe somebody's dog had gotten loose. The next night - guess what - it happened again. Luckily, only for about 1/2 hour. The next night - guess again - more barking in the middle of the night. No idea where it was coming from. Then, the following evening, we were eating dinner. Barking. The same bark. We got up and took a walk to see where it was coming from. A neighbor down the road. They were not home. They left the dog outside, and it barked that evening for almost 3 hours. I left a note in their mailbox.

The following afternoon, they came to my house to accost me about the note. Furious. How DARE I. Declaring that it wasn't Their Dog. No apology. Just accusing me of being a terrible person for leaving a note.


This afternoon, I come home from an errand. I get out of the car. Blasting music. I know exactly where it is coming from, as I've heard it many times. I walked about the 1/4 mile to their house. The teenage girl, sitting outside, stereo by her side. Blasting it. She didn't hear me approach until I was right in front of her. I said, Do you have any idea how loud that is? She said, Oh it's not at all loud. I said, either you turn it down, or I'll go call the police. She turned it up louder, I kid you not.


What is with people? I have 4 dogs. I would never in a million years put them in a situation where they bark for more than 5 minutes. I would never plunk my stereo down outside and crank it as loud as I felt like.

If somebody arrived at my house to tell me about something I was doing that disturbed them, I would apologize! Nope, nobody apologizes. They think I'm the crazy person for being bothered by their outrageous noise. We're not talking about music in the far distance, or a dog making an occasional bark. We're talking about as loud as you can, for as long as you can, with absolutely no thought whatsoever for your neighbor.
My neighbor that built their house as close as they possibly could to ours, left their dog out every single morning FOR A YEAR at 6am, and the dog barked for 5-10 minutes. Right outside my bedroom window. When I FINALLY said something, she went ballistic. Told me to get off her property or she would have me arrested for trespassing. And then she told all the neighbors what a total bitch I am.

From now on, I'm just going to call the police.

Except, the police do not respond to barking dog complaints. And they only respond to blasting stero complaints at certain hours. So I have no recourse at all. I'm just supposed to sit inside my house with all the doors and windows shut, and turn up the TV or fans, to drown out their noise.
That just isn't right.


So, what is a neighbor to do?


6 comments:

Judy said...

A well deserved rant...I totally agree with you. Common courtesy, respect and manners are no longer taught or exercised in homes.

brainella said...

Barry Manilow. Play him loud and often. See if they get cranky. :)

I do understand your problem. Our neighbors have a sad little yappy dog that goes outside and barks for 30 minutes every morning at 6am. Why would you do that?

Respect for others is non-existent.

Jenn said...

I totally get you! We have had some doozies for neighbors in the past...people I found easy to despise (and I teach my children never to despise anyone!)

I hate that no-one cares anymore about others people's feelings. Maybe I don't want to hear your music...maybe I don't *like* your music....ever think of that?!

I agree with what brainella said, play some Christian music as loud as you can...they'll probably get your hint and they'll be so disgusted that they'll think twice about blasting their music again!

On another note, I have found that if you are friendly, sometimes that works wonders. If you had approached her and instead of saying you'd call the cops, said that you have to work long hours and you need to sleep, maybe she would've acted differently. Or maybe not.

But it's worth a try to be respectful to them first and be nice and kind and then when none of that works, you can say you have a good reason for being blunt.

But I totally understand your frustration and how it gets to you. It does me too!! If only we had like 1,000 acres and lived in the middle of it.

Shalana, the funky felter said...

That is somewhat reminiscent of what my neighborhood use to be. I remember when my husband and I moved in five years ago, one of the first encounters I had was a couple of teenage neighbors ringing my doorbell repeatedly then running away. When I confronted them about it, they used a wide variety of profanity in return. I spoke with their mother about it who made them half-heartidly apologize. (And that's just one example!) Fortunately for us, they moved. I actually think that they were foreclosed on as were several other of the "trouble-makers" in our neighborhood. The economic downturn has actually made our neighborhood better - houses being fixed up and nice families buying them. We try our best to just keep to ourselves though. Sad, but it seems to work better that way. We are somewhat hermits though :(

I feel your pain!

FairiesNest said...

That's terrible! I feel incredibly lucky to have fabulous neighbors right now but there have been times in the past where it was bad! We had drug dealers living next door at one time that kept a huge vicious dog...I was glad to see them get carted off to jail!

Sherry said...

I seriously think you kill them with kindness. Cookies, smiles....

Right now, you are the one upset, not them. It's not healthy.

And, the only thing you can control is your behavior, hugs to you.

xoSherry