I was awakened at 11 PM by a banging noise, and then the barking of my dogs, who sleep in the bedroom with me. I was terrified, thinking someone was breaking into the house. I huddled in bed, thinking someone was coming after me, and trusting the dogs to protect me. Only after about a half hour did the next door neighbor women, who have harrassed me before about noise from my hot tub (which is right outside my bedroom, and which I never hear myself), begin screaming at me to turn the hot tub off.
Now I wasn’t frightened, so I got out of bed, put on a robe, and went to the bedroom sliding door, and called to them “I can’t turn it off or it doesn’t stay hot. It has to run all the time. And the Planning Department has already inspected it and told me it wasn’t too close to your property line.” Yes, they had already sent the inspectors after me, and the inspector said it was correctly installed and said he’d put the matter “in a file.”
I then got back into bed, wide awake, turned on the TV, found out that Ted Kennedy had passed, and began to cry. For me, this was the end of the long era of hope that began with his brother John in 1960, when I was still in school, and over the past forty years wound down a road of disillusionment and confrontation with some very harsh realities about human nature and government.
In the mean time, the two women from next door came over to my house and rang my doorbell, awakening the dogs once again. I wondered what the neighborhood thought, but I was not willing to participate in any more negative energy, especially that night so I didn’t answer. Hours later, I went to sleep.
At dawn, my doorbell rang again. I awoke and went outside. There wasn’t anyone there, but there was a handwritten note (I’ve had several of these before, on issues ranging from my dogs to the hot tub). These neighbors have lived in the neighborhood since it was built, and I think they are afraid of the changes that come over time. Ironically, we’re about the same age–just not the same temperament. Because I live in Arizona part of the year, I’ve used to the constant white noise of pool motors and compressors on central air conditioners that go on and off all night. Not only that, but I grew up in New York City! My hot tub motor doesn’t even hit my radar screen. Nor, I believe, should it hit the radar screen of anyone who chooses to live in a subdivision with small lots, among other families with children, dogs, hot tubs, and noisy arguments:-)
The note said,” How come your hot tub is off now when you said it has to run 24 hours.? How come it runs continuously all night long and during the day it goes on and off? It’s called deliberate harassment.”
I didn’t know what to do. I watched the talking heads mourn Ted Kennedy, with his great concern for the little people. I wondered how much the ordinary people appreciate someone who gives their life to people like my neighbors, who construe an automatic thermostat as “deliberate harassment.?” How can you deal with people like that?
I consulted the Sheriff’s Office, and they told me to get a restraining order to stop them from banging on my fence and ringing my doorbell in the middle of the night. I can’t even conceptualize doing something like that. I went back to bed exhausted, and spent an unproductive day mourning for Kennedy and feeling generally depressed. Even the dogs I could understand — they do bark — but the hot tub?
This morning my doorbell rang again. ANOTHER person from the Planning Department came out, this time with a colleague. They measured and photographed. Their determination? My hot tub is not too close to their property line, or too noisy. However, the did say for my own safety I should move it further from my own bedroom, which I agreed to do. How will that help them? It probably won’t. They will just have caused me to spend money and disrupt my own life.
Have you ever had a troublesome neighbor? How have you handled this? I’m at a loss. Although within my rights, I am clearly someone’s problem.
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