Help me help me

[Jester]

So after my last post, I made a run to the grocery store for some needed supplies (Gatorade, mostly), and while I was there, I couldn't resist buying myself a single vine-ripened tomato for a snack. All that talking about Jersey tomatoes got me hungry for one of my favorite salad ingredients. And I only need a knife and a salt shaker to make a good snack out of a tomato...and that's just how I had this one. Was it as good as a Jersey beefsteak? Of course not. But it was a decent consolation prize.

Helpful Dining Hint #464: When eating a salted tomato, once you are finished, do not drink the remaining juices out of the bottom of the bowl, as they are very, very salty! Yes, I found this out the hard way this evening.

[Eireann]

Sure he's a coward, but there's a very good chance he just couldn't hear the bloody thing over his stereo.

Working through the government takes time. I recommend high explosives.

A friend sent me some links to websites that discuss daytime noise. There is something I can do - and they wouldn't like it, because the amount of money they can be fined is truly HUGE. I thought of printing the information and slipping the paper into their mailbox, but then I thought, why bother? No need to give them advance notice of what I'm going to do.

I talked to a good friend this weekend. He's a lawyer. I also told him the neighbors' name (I think it's one of those fairly common Czech occurrences of three generations living in the same house, where each generation occupies one floor of the house, to maintain privacy).

So, we'll see what happens. My friend asked if my landlord and landlady would be willing to sign their names to the complaint. I hope they will, because if I move out due to the noise, they won't be able to find anyone else who will want to live right next to it.

I'm no longer at Loser Company, so I'm surfing around, looking for jobs. I do have a meeting in September, and a one-time gig that may or may not happen this month (we all hope it will) and I sent my CV to a company that pays very well per hour, so right now, I'm waiting. And looking.

[Eireann]

Oh, yes...

When I had that breakdown that caused me to start this thread, I called my friend. I was hyperventilating to an extent that I still can't believe. I was crying. I was screaming. I was largely incoherent.

I saw my friend over the weekend, and finally got the chance to ask him if, as I had thought, he put his boyfriend on babysitting duty while he (my friend) was out of the country.

"Yes," he said.

I scared the living hell out of both of them - when I was talking (if you can call it that) to my friend, his boyfriend was sitting next to him, and got a loud-and-clear overview of my end of the conversation.

So when I saw them this weekend, his boyfriend gave me a big smile, a handshake, and an enthusiastic, "Hi, Eireann! How are you?"

[Rapscallion]

It's good that you've got people around you physically. We'll do what we can here, but it's not as good as real people you can touch.

Not that we're far away from that, of course...

Rapscallion

[Eireann]

It was a HUGE help. I met with another friend today and filled him in on what I've been doing - he already knew the news about my mother, because I told him in a chat not long after it happened.

It was good to get out and see someone. I had to get out, because Stereo Boy was doing his thing. It turns out that there are TWO Stereo Boys next door. God help me. I let my landlady know what course of action I'm taking; she's very sympathetic, and told me that she has been afraid that I would move out, which is not what she wants. I told her it's not what I want either, but I can't live next door to people who think a home is a nightclub.

She told me some interesting stories about the neighbors, too. How the wife left the husband for another man, then went back to the husband, and the other man stood outside their house, looking up at the windows and holding a teddy bear. How the husband admits that his children are idiots. (Way to go, Dad!) How they're just weird in general.

I told her one of the reasons why I'm so edgy right now; she hadn't heard about my mother, since she's been away for some time. She was very sympathetic.

She doesn't think my landlord will want to cosign the complaint, but she thinks his parents will. His father's been pissed off at the neighbors for some time.

I don't know what I would have done without all of you.

[Eireann]

I'm feeling down again. I keep thinking of Mom and all the things I regret. One of the Stereo Boys next door decided to crank up the volume AND the bass this afternoon. Banging on the wall didn't help. I'm going to take whatever legal action I can, maybe even appealing to the European Union for some kind of decision if I don't get anything from the Czech courts.

Why can't I get any peace and quiet?

[Eireann]

Got home tonight, during the time when it's usually quiet.

What happens?

Stereo is turned up. Not hugely, but definitely louder than they've ever played it at that time of night. We were approaching the magic hour of Turn Your Fucking Shit Down Or Face The Consequences. I pounded on the wall.

After the Magic Hour had struck, guess what they did?

Had the stereo on, turned up the volume, kept it up for a few seconds, turned it down, then repeated the process.

[Mikkel]

Can't you call the police? At least after that Magic Hour (I presume 10 pm).

ETA maybe they got a warning and are expecting to be thrown out soon. It may be their way of saying that they don't give a sh*t.
I hope so, anyway.

[Eireann]

I can, but the little bastards were aware enough not to keep playing the stereo at a high volume. If I'd called the police, they would have arrived to a quiet place, because the stereo would have been turned down by that time. Asshole neighbors really suck.

Oh, and they can't be thrown out. Their father owns the house where they live. He lives there too. He won't control them, though.

[Magpie]

You might still be able to make a complaint about what they're doing. Or document it, because this is obviously being done with the intent of annoying you. Gee, harassment... why does that sound like an important word to me...

[Eireann]

That's what I'm going to do. Documenting is very difficult, because how do you document noise next door? If they'd made some kind of written statement that they wouldn't turn down the noise, that would be one thing, but they know how the law reads (some of it, anyway), and I really do believe that they're doing this deliberately.

Maybe a huge pile of money will fall into my lap, and I can buy my own damn house!

[Magpie]

Record when it happens. Write down what they do, because when they turn it up loud and then down and then loud and then down it's obviously done to harass you. It's not perfect, because even if you record them playing it the music (from your room) they can argue that you're making it up, and that's from different times, or that you recorded from elsewhere. But it's better than not writing it down. I'd say duration and times. And notes like what you wrote in here, although strip out "they're doing this because" or anything like that.

You might be able to explain when you call in a complaint that they seem to be aware that they're not supposed to be making this noise. But I also question if the idiot next door is actively watching out the window for bylaw enforcement. If he's turning it up frequently they'll likely catch it.

[Eireann]

Two emails sent today.

One to the Ministry of Justice of the Czech Republic, one to a European Union body. I outlined the problem I've been having with the neighbors, how their sons are doing it deliberately, how complaints have been made many times in the past, etc. I WILL take this as far as I have to, in order to get a quiet environment.

If their spineless shit of a "father" would take the fucking stereo away from them, they wouldn't be able to do it - but he won't. He says that the stereo is the least of the problems he has with them. The least? What the hell else are they doing? Drug running? Human trafficking? What?

I probably don't want to know.

I feel better for having contacted the relevant organizations. The European Union body sent me an automated email stating that I should expect an answer within three days. Evidently, part of the process is having someone come out to measure the noise, to check if it exceeds a certain limit.

People have said, "That's difficult. If they don't keep it turned up all the time, how will you get it measured?"

"That's easy," I said. "All I have to do is bang on the wall, and they're almost certain to turn it up."

The police have been called on more than one occasion, so there is a record of some of the complaints, and my landlord can, at least, attest to the fact that he spoke to the boys' father. Plus, his parents have been mightily irritated by the racket, and I'm sure they'll make a statement about the loudness.

What a fucking mess.

[Magpie]

for taking care of this!

[Eireann]

Don't congratulate me too soon. The law here is, if someone makes a lot of noise between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., this is against the law, and the police can do something about it. During the daytime? I don't know. In my emails, I stated that I often work from home, and that I can't concentrate with that noise, which is audible in every room. (Once, it was audible in another room, when I was wearing earplugs AND listening to a headset!)

I don't know what the result will be. Clearly, talking to them does no good. A warning, even from a government body, will have no effect. A huge, enormous fine might do it.

It seems that there is a regulation against making noise in the daytime, if you're using a very loud power tool. However, I don't know the rules against blasting a stereo through the wall into the place next door.

Wish me luck!