Friday, April 04, 2008

boys part 2

I mentioned I have boys. The infestation is still ongoing. I've had many opportunities to hear and even interact with them because I've been home a lot this week fighting off a steroid enhanced throat/sinus thing. Which by the way, feels fucking awful. What does it feel like? Like a viral infection, on steroids. Get it?

Anyhow, I'm home lots and feeling shitty lots and the kids are here, not lots but loudly when they are. Last night featured kids in the hall, then kids down in the basement. I have to wonder, what possible appeal can it hold for them? Is it a throwback to when they were still living at mom and dad's house, 3 months ago, and they had to hide out in the basement to smoke their weed? I was going to say "to smoke a joint" but I'm doubtful these kids smoke out of anything other than overpriced glass bowls or vaporizers.

I found out this week that my landlord helpfully told the boys that "the people downstairs called the police on them". He told them this, he claims, to try to stress upon them the gravity of the situation (the situation being my landlord's inability to consistently and place screen tenants).

Here's who called the cops on whom. I called on people in the parking lot last weekend. The lady across the hall called specifically on the boys several weeks ago, and either the guys down the hall or the lady in front called on the boys as well two weekends ago now I think (I wasn't here for that one). But it turns out the boys assumed "the people" who called the cops were me and my fella. Why? My best guess is because my fella and I have spoken to them in person when they are being loud. Alone that's not really great reasoning, certainly wouldn't be sufficient for me unless I was 8. I think the rest of it goes something like "and the boys are not very smart thus they assume things like the 50 something year old disabled woman who had the misfortune to move in below them last month would not have called the cops on them for any one of their post 1 AM beer fueled fun-fests. Why would she? Afterall, she never came up, knocked on their door, and asked them to keep it down in the middle of a party".


Tonight's been quiet so far. Aside from some very occasional thumping and bumping, and the sounds of someone running down the stairs, a slam of the door which sounded like it was going to take the side of the house off, and then more running all the way across the porch and onto the pavement around the house and past the window just next to my desk, it's been peaceful.

And hey, my temperature is finally down a bit. I'm going to go celebrate by reading on the couch.

2 comments:

WinterWheat said...

My condolences, and LOL at "I have boys." Quite the infestation!

Your post does point out an interesting assumption on the part of law violators: those who complain in person must be the first to call the cops. Not so. The ones who are afraid to complain in person are the first to call the cops, usually. As for your consideration in speaking to them first: no good deed goes unpunished.

When I was in grad school I lived above a couple of degenerates who would blast their stereo at 4am. We asked them to keep it down in person, to no avail. Eventually neighbors started calling the cops on them, and they assumed we'd done it. They actually called false noise complaints on us; the cops woke us out of a dead sleep at 3am one morning on a "noise" complaint. Sigh. Worse: they intercepted a package my mother had sent me, a skirt custom made from tweed from the Isle of Harris (where I supposedly have ancestral blood), and the fuckers CUT. IT. UP. AND. PUT. A. SWATCH. OF. THE. TWEED. ON. MY. MAILBOX. Can you say cuh-RAAAAYYZY???

Hang in there...

PFG said...

Holy crap! That is exactly the kind of shit (ok I wasn't even imagining that cuh-RAAAYYZY) I'd like to avoid here. I talked to my across the hall neighbor today, the one who lives under the kids. Man she's got it bad, living under the little turds. Ultimately, I do blame the landlord for this mess. Little shits happen and he should have had the sense to not place them in this building, let alone on the top floor.