Blessings and a quick word on the neighbors

I feel I would be remiss if I did not take a moment to list six very special things that have happened lately (and continue to happen).

1. The remaining $600 of a student loan was forgiven by the creditor due to our payment history.
2. I passed the Operator Certification Treatment IV test, thereby gaining reimbursement of the $100 fee and a small bonus to my paychecks.
3. We’re buying a house!
4. My beautiful wife.
5. My eager daughter.
6. My curious son.

The trip to Rexburg was fun as well. One thing that Julia failed to mention was that my mother watched both kids for us for about three hours while the two of us drove around Idaho Falls Wednesday morning. We spent far more than we should have over the course of the trip, but ended up finding some clothes for the Julia and the kids, new shoes for Julia, and a few other odds and ends. Thankfully Julia was there to keep me in line as I probably would have purchased a few clearance video games had she not been.

In other news, the neighbors continue to be the commandments equivalent of Extreme Sports. It takes a lot to flare my temper. So yesterday the neighbors had their music up fairly loud. I could hear it throughout the condo, so I called them to have them turn it down. They did.

About 30 minutes later, the music was up again. I called again and received an apology, but the music did not turn down. I pounded on the wall, but still no change in the volume. So I went over and just laid into the neighbors, explaining that they’ve woken my kids up twice and that the next time I hear them I will call the police.

Their response surprised me a bit. “But it isn’t very loud.”

We were standing at their front door and I had to shout to be heard over the beat and lyrics. We apparently have a very different understanding of the word loud.

As I walked away, figuring I had said my peace and the message had struck home – at least for the evening – I was met with the following:

“But the police said they can’t hear anything.”

My response was that I would personally file a request to have them cited for public disturbance. I didn’t go into other details, like the fact I could let the police know that there are minors constantly smoking in their back yard, that they have parties where fourteen and fifteen year old kids are all but having sex in their garage, or even that they were caught by the HOA president smoking marijuana in front of their house. I also suspect that underage drinking is occurring, but have no physical evidence to back that up.

I went home and figured that was the end of it. Nope. They decided to watch a movie. So I made good on my threat and called the police, asking that the officer contact me before they go over to the neighbors. Not three minutes later I was speaking to an officer that gave me some pointers on what to say to dispatch and what to expect of the situation. I then sent him over to their house and we were greeted with silence for the rest of the evening.

This afternoon at about 3:30 a new kid shows up on my doorstep asking if they can listen to the music “loud” as they will be cleaning up the mess they made the night before. I informed the new boy (the neighbor has three kids – 19 and 14-yr old boys and a 10-yr old girl) that they could listen to the music so long as I couldn’t hear it, he said “Word” and walked away.

A few minutes later Monkey woke from his nap and we took the kids over to the grandparents’ house for dinner. I figured they did ask and we weren’t going to be there, so I stopped over at the neighbors on the way over to let them know we’d be gone. The mother answered the door and requested that I not call the police and that we should call them first. The conversation went as you would probably expect with me explaining the events preceding the visit from the police. My suspicions were confirmed that a party had occurred the night before.

In any case, I got a fist bump from the mother and a big thanks for letting them turn up the music. Hopefully they got it out of their system. The house was quiet when we got back so that’s a good sign.

Just another month or two…