Friday, October 01, 2010

Night, Noise, & Neighbors: Coping with Late Night Loud in the Hood

Last night, again, as has been the case for much of the week, people had late night verbal encounters in front of their homes, in the street, by their cars, or by our home. Last night featured at least three separate groups and occasions. These interactions often continue up to and beyond midnight.

It has been a hot week, and we have had our windows open, which doesn't help block out the audio portion of the evening. Our windows are on the street side. Our sleep has been postponed and disrupted by the volume of the outside interactions, and it went beyond tolerable last night. We were treated to some young female in distress speaking phrases like "open the f---ing door," "are you f---ing serious?," "so it is my f---ing fault again?" Probably an argument/break-up, wouldn't you guess? And possibly the same couple due to the similar conversation we heard a week or so ago. Without the benefit of the bleeping out profanity.

There were women sitting outside a home talking and giggling. Two car alarms went off for way too long. Always someone running, which seems to be loud in the still of the night. Always cars coming and going, headlights, and different speeds with which they depart.

This is an annoying part of urban living and the challenge in "loving your neighbor." My loving YOUR neighbor might be easier. Mine? Not so much. And not after 11:00pm at least.

It is amazing to me how voices travel here at night, and how much we now know about the private lives of strangers. I’m tempted. I might buy in to the “If I can’t beat them, join them” philosophy to make a point in my frustration. I'll sleep in my clothes, have a plastic chair handy, head on out when disrupted, chair in hand, sit down with the late-night talk show neighbors, and join in. To make a point. Tempting.

3 comments:

Mrs. Coral Kenagy said...

It helps me to know that I'm not the only one who struggles with this. <3

Ellen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ellen said...

Loving your neighbor can pay off. We have that nextdoor to us... our room is in the back, we sleep with doors open, facing our neighbor's backyard. We hear lots of fights, frequent profanity, lots of drinking, late night mariachi music. But we consistently showed love to them, and they became good friends. Then in April we lost the husband. He was 45 and collapsed without warning with an aneurism... died 2 weeks later. So glad we loved him... we would have missed out on a wonderful relationship had we not.