The Vent and Rant Thread

[Dazrin]

Regardless of what you call them they will still only answer to the sound of a can opener.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by ZGottlieb

Vent and Rant might be the names of my next two cats.

Years ago, my parents had a couple of feline siblings called Sturm and Drang.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

Regardless of what you call them they will still only answer to the sound of a can opener.

Actually...mine come when called. No can opener, no treats. ;-) Very uncatly of them!

Hitch

[Hemmi]

Mine come when they're called only if they feel like it.

[HLS]

Annoyed that my Kindle Oasis Gold has much worse battery life. 51% battery drain in 2 days. 48 hours!!! that's double than the 8GB model I sold on ebay

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by kcladyz

Annoyed that my Kindle Oasis Gold has much worse battery life. 51% battery drain in 2 days. 48 hours!!! that's double than the 8GB model I sold on ebay

Yes, they'd have done better to have included a battery in the cover, just as they did with the original. But trust me -- the battery life on the original S**** when it doesn't have the cover. Lucky to get a full day on it.

[tempest@de]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Noise is psychologically destructive, seriously. Even forgetting torture techniques and the like.

I lived in a quiet-ish neighborhood, for years. A guy moved into the neighborhood with his tween boy, and promptly they got a dog, which they both neglected. A largish dog, part lab, part who-knows.

Their house was next to the community mailbox, kitty-corner from my house (my house was on the outside of a 90-degree angle, his was on the inside, if you get the image). If anyone went to his house, or to the mailbox, and they weren't home--which was most of the time--the dog would start barking.

And never stop. I mean, never stop.

I oncecounteded and coutned the barks. This dog barked >2,000x per hour. Yes, more than TWO THOUSAND times, per hour. And this would go on for 6, 8, sometimes 10 hours a day.

The owner once went out of town, for Xmas, leaving some neighbor to feed the dog, and the dog barked and howled, through Xmas, for 5 days STRAIGHT.

In the meantime, our esteemed City Council had decided that they weren't going to enforce noise ordinances. Other than suing him, what can you do? I repeatedly asked him to do something, and of course, he didn't.

I actually reached the point, after 3 years of this, day-in, day-out, of considering killing the dog. I mean...I'm an animal lover. I was horrified at the thought, but I was losing my mind. I worked from home, and I listened to this, all day, every day. Our HOA refused to pay attention to me, because, wait for it, he was the President thereof.

Finally, he left the HOA/neighborhood, and I told the newly-elected people that if they didn't do something, I was suing them personally. I know, it sounds like I'm some cranky old fart a**h*le, but...you can't imagine what it was like. I could hear it with the TV on, with the air-conditioner running, there was NO escaping it.

This jerk finally met a woman and they moved. Shortly thereafter, we moved to our new house.

The first morning in the new house, I'm wakened by...dogs barking, down the road. I actually started to CRY, and I'm not a crier, ever. I was so freaked out, by years of noise abuse, from that *&^%$# dog and his horrible owner, that I lost it over something as trivial as a few dogs barking.

Spoiler:

(And, of course, what happened? These *&^%$#@ had dogs that barked every single morning, too. I put a note on their door, telling them that if they didn't do something, it would be he police or the courts. I and a few other local residents, the inconsiderate *&^%$#@. It boggles me that people just don't HEAR what their *&^%$#@ dogs are doing. They were HOME for this, mind you--it would start at 5:45 each morning, and go on for two hours while the local kids would walk down past this house to the busstop, about a mile from their homes. EVERY DAY, 5x week, during the 8-9 mos of school season.)

Don't dismiss what noise can do to you. I would have thought it was ridiculous, y'know?--until I lived it. Years of it. I'd go talk to them now. Just tell them the truth--that their music is loud enough to drown out your own TV. That's ridiculous, unless their window is 5' from yours, and I'm sure it's not. Trust me, if you don't nip it in the bud now, you'll probably just be suffering more, later.

Offered FWIW.

Hitch

I feel your pain Hitch, it’s like the more you try to not notice the noise the more you notice it, in the old apartment I tried to do something to help me not notice but It didn’t work, it’s like my mind can’t unfocus from it, sometimes I just grabbed my book and went to a park to sit and read.

They live across the street about 7 or 8 meters from my house, yesterday there was no music, I expect that their downstairs neighbor would say something, since the house is rented and the owners leave on the ground floor, and they are seventy or more, so I would expect that they don’t care for loud music, specially that kind of music.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by tempest@de

I feel your pain Hitch, it’s like the more you try to not notice the noise the more you notice it, in the old apartment I tried to do something to help me not notice but It didn’t work, it’s like my mind can’t unfocus from it, sometimes I just grabbed my book and went to a park to sit and read.

They live across the street about 7 or 8 meters from my house, yesterday there was no music, I expect that their downstairs neighbor would say something, since the house is rented and the owners leave on the ground floor, and they are seventy or more, so I would expect that they don’t care for loud music, specially that kind of music.

And I feel your pain, too. I don't mean to turn into an intolerant old fart, (although the dog thing was when I was in my late 30's early 40's) y'know, but, sweet Mother Mary, is it too much to ask, for a smidgen of consideration for other people who live nearby? It's like they live in a damn bubble, with no thought WHATSOEVER for their neighbors.

I hope it's resolved soon, for your sake. Otherwise, go over there with a big-ass hammer and knock on their door. OR, point your own speakers out the window at them, and play something that you think they'll hate. They usually get the message that way. (I once took a CD of the barky dog, that I'd recorded, put it on BLAST on my then-stereo, pointed the speakers out my front door, and played it for my oh-so-thoughtful neighbor...at 3:00 a.m.)

Hitch

[BetterRed]

Woman detained in Slovakia for playing Verdi for 16 years

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by Hitch

(I once took a CD of the barky dog, that I'd recorded, put it on BLAST on my then-stereo, pointed the speakers out my front door, and played it for my oh-so-thoughtful neighbor...at 3:00 a.m.)

Hitch

I like the idea of the payback...but didn't this punish all your other neighbors, too?

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

I like the idea of the payback...but didn't this punish all your other neighbors, too?

I coordinated it with them--they were all sick of the cursed dog, too. One had a trip out of town, and the other that was most in the line of fire said she could go to her mum's for the night...the last one wanted to stay for the fireworks. :-)

I would NOT have done it without consulting with them first.

Hitch

[tempest@de]

Originally Posted by Hitch

(I once took a CD of the barky dog, that I'd recorded, put it on BLAST on my then-stereo, pointed the speakers out my front door, and played it for my oh-so-thoughtful neighbor...at 3:00 a.m.)

Hitch

I love your payback.

I think someone said something because again yesterday all was quiet.

and still ranting about the noise, what's with people going in the street or in public transportation with their phones blasting music, don’t they know what earphones are, why should the whole word have to listen what they want. If I want to listen to music I will I don’t need you to provide music for me, in fact I would prefer you didn’t

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by tempest@de

I love your payback.

I think someone said something because again yesterday all was quiet.

and still ranting about the noise, what's with people going in the street or in public transportation with their phones blasting music, don’t they know what earphones are, why should the whole word have to listen what they want. If I want to listen to music I will I don’t need you to provide music for me, in fact I would prefer you didn’t

What really killed me is, it didn't work! He decided that his dog couldn't POSSIBLY be making all that noise, that I'd provoked the dog, stood right by his gate to "make" the dog bark, and that it was all hyperbole, dog-style.

Honestly, at that point--and I'm not trying to be a drama queen--I thought I was going to have some kind of freaking breakdown. Mr. H is relatively deaf (a lifetime of flying old airplanes), and the mutt didn't bother him as much, because he simply couldn't hear him that clearly. I've been blessed (and cursed) with really wide-ranging hearing; I can still hear ranges of sounds that most people can't, even when they are young. I never minded that, until the Incident of the Dog in the Daytime, y'know?

I nearly cried with happiness when I found out he'd met some woman and was MOVING. God only knows what the people at his new neighborhood went through--she had a large dog, too. (Not that size is relevant to noise, IME.) I worried for the other dog that it would pick up the horribly bad habits of the original Hound of the Barkervilles and sadly, we all know what happens to dogs that are unmanageable due to poor training by their owners.

Hitch

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by tempest@de

I love your payback.

I think someone said something because again yesterday all was quiet.

and still ranting about the noise, what's with people going in the street or in public transportation with their phones blasting music, don’t they know what earphones are, why should the whole word have to listen what they want. If I want to listen to music I will I don’t need you to provide music for me, in fact I would prefer you didn’t

I drive rather than use public transportation (it's not that great where I live). It can be really annoying to be stuck at a stop light next to a car with booming bass.

In my experience living in apartments, usually the worst noise offenders are young men. It doesn't seem to occur to them that their neighbors might not want to hear their music or TV. They are also usually the ones driving the cars with loud stereos.

[Rumpelteazer]

I like house sitting for my friends, though it was very quiet this time without a dog. But three weeks is really my limit. Mostly because of their bed. It's a double but a narrow one, but still with two mattresses, so those are narrow. The mattresses are also hard and not flat, the sides are lower than the middle, so you feel like you're sliding off.

It feels like each morning it takes longer for me not to feel stiff and sore. The second half of the final week I have a perpetual sore back.

I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own, soft bed again. Which is the same size as my friends' bed, but with one mattress, so it's more comfortable and spacious.