Neighbors, noise, and request for help
Y'all might know by now that when I'm working, I work night shift. Let me say right up front, yes, this is a choice I make, so that I can accommodate my various little frailties and still work enough hours to qualify for benefits most of the time. So, yes, the burden of accommodating the inconveniences of working nights is on me, I understand that.
That said, I have a new thing to work out.
I can more or less work around the lawnmowers, leaf-blowers, motorcycles and trucks and modified jeeps, dogs, streetsweeper, garbage trucks (sometimes there are three different pick-ups on garbage day), housemates (who have been absolute angels, for the most part, about noise inside), neighbors who stand in the middle of the street talking in their stadium voices (I'm SURE they don't realize that anyone with their window open can hear most of their conversation, or they'd use their indoor voices since they're generally standing about 18-24" apart) and neighborhood kids.
But there's a kid across the street, two houses up, who's gotten a drum set. A new drum set. With which he or she does not seem to have a regular practice schedule. On which he or she practices with the window of their street-facing front-of-the-house bedroom open.
And which, even with my (street-facing front-of-the-house) window closed, wooden blinds down, and blackout curtains drawn, I can not only hear but *feel* in my room. Any time, during daylight hours, or in the evening up until about 9pm. This is not going to go well, for sleeping. One of the worst things for me, for interrupting my sleep, is the unexpected noise, the unanticipated *thrum* of vibration through the walls. Why? Because I live in earthquake country. I don't shrug off sudden thumps and shakes and bangs very easily. Not when the next one can be the one that at the very least knocks the books off the shelf, and at the worst knocks the house off the concrete pad.
Now, I don't know this family. My housemate, who owns the house, doesn't know this family. I'm not working right now, so I've not gone over right away (two weeks ago) and said, "I need to bring something to your attention." I'm working out my annoyance, anxiety, and frustration on my end as much as I can, first, before I go over and introduce myself and bring up the issue that I have a problem, and I need their help to address it.
So on the one hand, I've possibly dug a hole into which later objections will fall and be lost forever, because I didn't say something right away. On the other hand, when I do go over, it will most likely not be in tears at frustration with not being able to control/convert how angry I am at once again being both helpless and in this position by my own choice.
Our next door neighbor is a cop, with a rotating schedule (much more brutal than a consistent repeating schedule). I haven't even had a chance to talk with him about this, which I'd like to do, in case he actually knows this family.
I'm just laying all this out here to sort my thoughts, and invite responses/experiences/suggestions.
I already use benadryl, melatonin with valerian and other things, and Ambien to get to sleep when I'm working. I use a sleep mask, white noise. Can't use earplugs or headphones anymore as I get a fungus in my ears which takes weeks to get rid of. I've got large cork-board bulletin boards up on the street-side walls, to absorb what more sound they can, and I put one up in the window to block more light and sound from leaking through there. I exercise before I leave work, so that I'm not hopped up too close to when I need to sleep; I drink chamomile or other relaxing teas, take a bath, meditate- I'm kind of out of options at this point for fixing my side of the equation.
Have you approached a neighbor about a noise problem? Been the neighbor approached? Know something about neighbor law or neighborhood watch-type relationships? (We don't have that on our street, sadly, I wish we did.) Mediated something like this?
I hate that I'm not in good enough physical shape to work days in hospital at this point. I have an old ankle/foot injury that doesn't accommodate 12 hours of walking/standing/lifting adults/pushing furniture all day anymore, and I don't have the experience (nor really the temperament) to do the admin/office jobs available in hospitals/clinics. I could look at being a pharmaceutical rep, but a) I hate big pharma, and b) am not much of a salesperson. *sigh* I love patient care, being at the bedside. That's where I'm best. Thus, home-care, night shift, taking care of other people's disabled teen-agers so they, the families, can get what sleep they can and function as well as they can the next day.
I already inconvenience my housemates when the weather's hot because my bedroom, by virtue of facing east and south AND having a heat trap on two sides (garage roof comes halfway up the bedroom walls; this area has no ventilation to speak of.) So when the sun first hits it at 6:15 am or so in summer it gets hot and stays hot all through the day and into the evening. My room's easily 5-8 degrees hotter than the entire rest of the house, some days. Yeah, there's air-conditioning, but the vent's in the (peaked) ceiling, AND the rest of the house is pretty damn cold when my room's just getting pleasant- not nice for the housemates, especially when the heat wakes me at 2pm and I can't get back to sleep until 5 or 6pm, and only then if the air-con's on... *sigh*
Anyway, /ramble, /whinge, /rant. Mostly I'm looking for observations about me that might help me shift/clarify my perspective, or your experiences/knowledge that might help me be able to talk with this family. It's easier in some ways in apartment buildings- there's usually a manager or super on-site; and it's more apparent when you share a wall or floor/ceiling with someone else that someone else is THERE in your noise-stream, whether or not you're aware of it. But in pretty suburban tracts of frame-built minimun-insulation sheet-rocked houses, the illusion is each house's noise is contained inside itself and so is no-one else's business. If only that were true.
Thanks very much in advance.
That said, I have a new thing to work out.
I can more or less work around the lawnmowers, leaf-blowers, motorcycles and trucks and modified jeeps, dogs, streetsweeper, garbage trucks (sometimes there are three different pick-ups on garbage day), housemates (who have been absolute angels, for the most part, about noise inside), neighbors who stand in the middle of the street talking in their stadium voices (I'm SURE they don't realize that anyone with their window open can hear most of their conversation, or they'd use their indoor voices since they're generally standing about 18-24" apart) and neighborhood kids.
But there's a kid across the street, two houses up, who's gotten a drum set. A new drum set. With which he or she does not seem to have a regular practice schedule. On which he or she practices with the window of their street-facing front-of-the-house bedroom open.
And which, even with my (street-facing front-of-the-house) window closed, wooden blinds down, and blackout curtains drawn, I can not only hear but *feel* in my room. Any time, during daylight hours, or in the evening up until about 9pm. This is not going to go well, for sleeping. One of the worst things for me, for interrupting my sleep, is the unexpected noise, the unanticipated *thrum* of vibration through the walls. Why? Because I live in earthquake country. I don't shrug off sudden thumps and shakes and bangs very easily. Not when the next one can be the one that at the very least knocks the books off the shelf, and at the worst knocks the house off the concrete pad.
Now, I don't know this family. My housemate, who owns the house, doesn't know this family. I'm not working right now, so I've not gone over right away (two weeks ago) and said, "I need to bring something to your attention." I'm working out my annoyance, anxiety, and frustration on my end as much as I can, first, before I go over and introduce myself and bring up the issue that I have a problem, and I need their help to address it.
So on the one hand, I've possibly dug a hole into which later objections will fall and be lost forever, because I didn't say something right away. On the other hand, when I do go over, it will most likely not be in tears at frustration with not being able to control/convert how angry I am at once again being both helpless and in this position by my own choice.
Our next door neighbor is a cop, with a rotating schedule (much more brutal than a consistent repeating schedule). I haven't even had a chance to talk with him about this, which I'd like to do, in case he actually knows this family.
I'm just laying all this out here to sort my thoughts, and invite responses/experiences/suggestions.
I already use benadryl, melatonin with valerian and other things, and Ambien to get to sleep when I'm working. I use a sleep mask, white noise. Can't use earplugs or headphones anymore as I get a fungus in my ears which takes weeks to get rid of. I've got large cork-board bulletin boards up on the street-side walls, to absorb what more sound they can, and I put one up in the window to block more light and sound from leaking through there. I exercise before I leave work, so that I'm not hopped up too close to when I need to sleep; I drink chamomile or other relaxing teas, take a bath, meditate- I'm kind of out of options at this point for fixing my side of the equation.
Have you approached a neighbor about a noise problem? Been the neighbor approached? Know something about neighbor law or neighborhood watch-type relationships? (We don't have that on our street, sadly, I wish we did.) Mediated something like this?
I hate that I'm not in good enough physical shape to work days in hospital at this point. I have an old ankle/foot injury that doesn't accommodate 12 hours of walking/standing/lifting adults/pushing furniture all day anymore, and I don't have the experience (nor really the temperament) to do the admin/office jobs available in hospitals/clinics. I could look at being a pharmaceutical rep, but a) I hate big pharma, and b) am not much of a salesperson. *sigh* I love patient care, being at the bedside. That's where I'm best. Thus, home-care, night shift, taking care of other people's disabled teen-agers so they, the families, can get what sleep they can and function as well as they can the next day.
I already inconvenience my housemates when the weather's hot because my bedroom, by virtue of facing east and south AND having a heat trap on two sides (garage roof comes halfway up the bedroom walls; this area has no ventilation to speak of.) So when the sun first hits it at 6:15 am or so in summer it gets hot and stays hot all through the day and into the evening. My room's easily 5-8 degrees hotter than the entire rest of the house, some days. Yeah, there's air-conditioning, but the vent's in the (peaked) ceiling, AND the rest of the house is pretty damn cold when my room's just getting pleasant- not nice for the housemates, especially when the heat wakes me at 2pm and I can't get back to sleep until 5 or 6pm, and only then if the air-con's on... *sigh*
Anyway, /ramble, /whinge, /rant. Mostly I'm looking for observations about me that might help me shift/clarify my perspective, or your experiences/knowledge that might help me be able to talk with this family. It's easier in some ways in apartment buildings- there's usually a manager or super on-site; and it's more apparent when you share a wall or floor/ceiling with someone else that someone else is THERE in your noise-stream, whether or not you're aware of it. But in pretty suburban tracts of frame-built minimun-insulation sheet-rocked houses, the illusion is each house's noise is contained inside itself and so is no-one else's business. If only that were true.
Thanks very much in advance.