Perpetual Ruminations

Who Let the Peeves Out?

Someone left the door open and all my pet peeves got out; I say, "Who, who... who let the peeves out!"

Yes pet peeve; we all have some.  One of mine is getting interrupted when I'm reading or writing. Interruptions when I'm concentrating are bad enough, but when it's reading or writing, it's even worse. I like it quiet when I read, so I can focus on the story. The same is true for writing, I loke it quiet so I can focus on the story. In both cases, the story is being played out within my mind, and outside interruptions force me to pause and then try and find the spot I was at.  Perhaps you can relate.

Currently, we live in an apartment in a fair size city. We moved from a big house in a small town, I'm talking an old farm style house in a community of less than 1000 people. It was quite a change, but we adjusted quickly. We like it here, having just about everything within an hour's drive or less, plenty of choices and a very comfortable apartment. Yes, we lost out on space, but we got use to it. Our heats and garbage is included, which is a big plus, maintenance is quick and efficient, and all the other utilities are reasonable. We rented a garage right off the building we live in and can park inside out of the weather. We rented a second garage for storage, and the two cost about the same as a local storage site. We've been here for over a year and it's become our home and we like it.

Then we got new neighbors upstairs who have young children. The people who moved out also had young children, and one was mentally handicapped and got a bit loud at times, but it wasn't a problem at all. The new people, however, do not restrain the children at all and are always stomping around above us. We addressed them and let them know it was creating a lot of noise for us, but they didn't care and it got worse and worse. We eventually went to the landlord with the problem and they also tried to address the people, but it didn't do any good; they just don't care how much noise we have to deal with, and it goes well into the early morning hours. If that isn't enough, the children also love to throw things off the balcony, especially if we are sitting outside. We also addressed this problem wit the parents, but they just replied, "They are children and don't know any better."

It's gotten so bad that the police have been called in, but the people above us tell them we are racist and just picking them out because they are immigrants. The police also have informed us there is little they can actually do, to talk to the apartment management because it's a breach of the lease agreement. But, again, racist is hurled back at us, and the managers cannot do much until winter ends because there are young children. They did offer us the chance to move into a top floor apartment and would not charge for the transition over. Even so, we like it on the ground floor, we passed up second and third floor living for this apartment. It's handy for the dog, the kids, and for hauling in items from the car. To move would be us being punished because they cannot comply.

As you can see, it's a big peeve and it's really messing things up. I cannot read or write at home because of the noise. Moving is our only option, so to put the peeve back into the barn and keep people from petting it, we are planning on moving when our lease runs out. It's not fair it's not right, but it's the only option that we can see that will be a solution. I mean, even if we had the people upstairs evicted, would we get better people, the same, or possibly worse people above us.

We are looking at areas outside the city, maybe an hour or two. We are looking at houses, I don't want another apartment. Finally, there needs to be work available near by, I'm not going to spend half the time I work driving back and forth. I did that once, it was enough. I figure as long as they let the peeve out, it may as well provide us with something better.