Idle Hands Are the Devil's Tools
Apparently this is a belief held by my neighbor. I'm trying to do some work (freebie stuff, not paid) and it's really hard to concentrate with the various sounds of construction emanating not more than ten feet from my workspace. I'd like to reach out my window and slap the guy, but that wouldn't be very neighborly now, would it? This has been an ongoing, ever present experience for quite a few years (starting whenever it was that he decided to retire.) I didn't pay it much notice other than when it woke me up a bit early on the weekends until I moved my office to it's current room a couple of years ago. Words cannot describe how much I regret this decision. I don't think a single day has gone by in the last two years when SOMETHING noisy wasn't being done a stone's throw away from my computer. If it's not auto repairs or car washing/vacuuming, it's home improvement construction or expanding the driveway or chainsawing a tree or a new sewer line or some mystery project involving an air-compressor. I'm not sure what the solution is to this since he has the right to putter around to his hearts content, but damn is it ever annoying. Maybe I should get better windows? Lead lined walls? A fence might help, but I can't put up a fence because of right-of-way issues with the phone company. If I ever buy another house, you can bet I won't buy one in a zero lot-line neighborhood like this one. I think I'd prefer about 20 acres with my house right dab in the middle.