I can’t stop yawning

This entry was published at least two years ago (originally posted on March 21, 2005). Since that time the information may have become outdated or my beliefs may have changed (in general, assume a more open and liberal current viewpoint). A fuller disclaimer is available.

Just to follow up on my whining on the last post, I didn’t fall asleep until sometime after 3am — and my alarm goes off at 6am. Most days I just smack the snooze until 6:30 or 7, but I knew that if I started hitting the snooze today, I’d likely end up just falling back asleep and waking up hours late for work (and as I’m the solitary staffer at my position, that would be a Bad Thing).

So now I get to run the entire day on something less than three hours of sleep.

This is not going to be terribly enjoyable.

Background info: this is a regular problem with my neighbor, and this is the first time it’s happened to me with any neighbor in this building. The building itself dates from the early 1900s, and the walls are thick — actually hearing anything from my neighbors has generally been a very rare thing, and the few times I have, it’s been muffled and easily ignored. Until this guy showed up.

I don’t know if he works at all, but if he does, it must be on some swing or graveyard shift that has him sleeping through the day. Afternoons, evenings, and long into the nights and mornings, he consistently has either his television or his stereo absolutely blaring, and when it’s the stereo, he’ll often have one single song on continuous repeat.

Knocking on his door (which I tried a couple weeks ago at 1am when the volume went up suddenly on a Saturday night/Sunday morning, again that same Sunday morning at 5am, and last night at about 2:30am) is pointless, as he never answers. I know he’s there and awake, as in addition to the noise you can often hear him moving about the apartment if you’re in the hallway (the doors in this building aren’t as thick and soundproof as the walls are), but he will not answer.

I complained about this a few months ago ago to the building’s residential manager, and things got quieter for a short while, but lately they’ve been getting louder again. I talked to the manager again a couple weeks ago (after the futile 1am and 5am attempts at getting my neighbor’s attention), and it turns out that my neighbor is something of an odd duck anyway. The manager also has problems getting this guy to answer his door, and apparently when he talked to him about the noise issue last time, this guy accused him of harassing him. Later on, the manager was going through the building with the maintenance crew to check on leaky pipes and such, and when my neighbor opened his door and saw the manager with two husky guys, he accused the manager of bringing along “muscle” to intimidate him.

Bizarre guy. So, now I just need to start keeping a record of nights like last night and get everything in writing so that there’s a documented trail of issues that the management can use if it gets to the point where they feel the need to evict him (which, at this point, I would not be complaining about).

Someday I’m going to get out of the apartment living thing, not have to deal with neighbors on the other side of every wall, floor, and ceiling, and it is going to be so, so nice.

And now, I’m off to yawn my way through my day.

Whee!

iTunesPride (In the Name of Love) (Techno Remake Club)” by Clivillés and Cole from the album Pride (In the Name of Love) (1991, 7:59).