Re: your fan solution

That's interesting, because my basement studio apartment is very quiet. When I'm recording I will even unplug the fridge. However, it is a very old house (an embassy once, I think) with scant acoustic isolation between apartments. I grew up in a big family, so little household sounds (like cats scampering upstairs) tend to comfort me, but now that I'm a vulnerable single woman living in a neighbourhood where creeps actually follow you at night, I've got a bit jumpy, and unusual sounds will wake me up

I now have a fan in the kitchen which I leave on when I hit the hay, but it was too loud for me, so (in my geeky way) I wired it in series with a desk lamp (into which I screwed an incandescent 'ballast resistor' - i.e. A 60w light bulb), and now I have a very quiet kitchen fan with accompanying 'night light'. It's very quiet, but it moves the air around and masks the sound of mice, spiders, and pixies quite nicely

;-)

P.S: {I love Post Scripts, don't I? ;-} My neighbour upstairs now is a young Goth woman who plays music in 5.1 Surround. I really don't mind this, because we've become friends, we co-operate - we even go out together (and walk home together), and, at last, Ive got a neighbour who doesn't mind when I'm playing

All neighbors are bad neighbors. Screw you and your tantric sex, your band rehearsals, your fights with your druggie girlfriend, your parties, your dog, your ethnic weddings, your Nickleback CDs and the rest of your sorry pathetic life. I would tell you to kill yourself but that would stink up the building.

My sympathies too. We recently got married and moved in together from our rentals in a quiet mountain town. I've lived in cities before, so expected an adjustment with respect to noise.

But our next door neighbros are beyond loud. They have loud screaming fights at all hours of the day and night. First thing in the morning, mid-day on the weekend...doesn't matter to them. They've woken us up more than once. And there's nothing quite like easing into the workday with a soundtrack of "you f***ing c***!!!!!!!" behind you.

And it's not just the fighting. The guy holds court on their front lawn, loudly talking on his cell pohone or throwing parties at 10 in the morning with his loser beer-swilling friends. In fact, what they seem to fight about mostly is a) his drinking and b) his unemployment. So he's not just loud, but around all the time.

She's not much better. When her girlfriends are partying on that same lawn on a Friday evening, they crank the music up so loudly you could probably hear it three blocks away.

We can't afford to move right now even if we could break the lease. But the neighbors make our lives miserable and it sucks. Good luck.

Get a 45 calibre revolver and permit. Tell your landlord about your firearm. A day or two later, discuss amicably your sleeping problem with him and emphasize how a lack of sleep makes you very, very edgy. Tell the landlord you need to move because you are a nervous wreck from lack of sleep. Instead of throwing a shoe, discharge a blank. Good luck, cowboy.

Maybe it is. Perhaps you are still wet behind the ears; it seems bizarre to me that you'd acuse Betzee of being racist. On what grounds?

{Whoo-oo-ee, he-ere we go... ;-}

Indeed, Neila Rose.

I come from a family of pranksters but that cousin is definitely the best. I can remember hearing him call a drug store in town and, impersonating an adult, tell the manager there was a Trojan condom recall. When he asked why Ben explained, "They've been found defective on laboratory mice."

That old man was, perhaps like the LW, obsessed with, in his case, teenage boys (and the noise they could create). As soon as he saw 'em, he rushed out. My brother and cousin were like "WTF?" as he became verbally abusive, referring to them as monkeys. It became their personal mission to make sure he never had a moment's peace after dark for the rest of the summer. My mother did the flowers for his memorial service, no doubt wondering if her son and nephew had hastened his departure.

The other thing the family who lived in that house did was go to the hardware store and buy a lot of "No Parking" signs. They tacked them on the trees surrounding their property so no one would block their view. But they lacked the force of law, no driver was obligated to observe them (though I'm sure most did after an encounter with the old man).

This is another issue related to high-density living. Parking. I notice in SF some people have acquired their own orange cones which the use to retain a parking place. Out of towners assume they were put there by law enforcement when it fact it was a private individual who probably stole the darn thing. I just toss 'em on the sidewalk.

"I hate to admit this, but a decade later, after 9/11, I took satisfaction in the likely difficulties they were encountering as a result in their daily routine. What goes around comes around..."

Wishing anyone daily difficulties is pretty vile.

But of course, 'Betzee' is a wonderful neighbour, friend, sibling, wife, mother, and all around ten pound busybody in a five pound bag of judgment.

Pulleaze, I didn't wish it; I took pleasure in knowing that it was happening!

When I complained to the landlord, they stole my newspaper (this was before it was available online). They had parties in which other families spent the entire weekend there, maybe 20 people in a two bedroom place. I had the men over my bedroom and the women and children over the living room, there was no way to escape. Multiple cars would be parked in the back making it extremely difficult for me to get my little Honda civic out.

I was trying to write my dissertation, I needed a little peace and quiet (and I found it in an upper level apt a block away).