The Friday Threat has arrived. Actually, it loomed in pretty horribly on Wednesday this week. I’ve put up with it since then but now it’s here and it’s impossible for it to be dispelled. I have to get through the day and I’ll know by 10pm tonight if my life for the weekend will continue.
Until then, the neighbours might arrive. And when they do, their noise boots me out of this place. The air conditioner goes on within minutes. Thumping noise is relentless during waking hours.
No rules involved. No laws. Do what they want, with the full blessing of the caravan park owner’s son.
Rules: these are general and codified, I have rights and obligations as does the neighbour (ten feet away through thin tin). In this issue, my rights to peace, privacy and comfort don’t exist. His obligation not to be disturb anyone (me, next door) does not exist.
Laws: these include the above as well as EPA laws for noise. Most people think there is only the metric of decibel to decide offensive noise, but there are four metrics.
I doubt the owner’s son has a clue about any of them. And obvious from his “thinking” and decisions that they don’t matter, even if he did.
I think I’ll leave early tonight, and cook dinner outdoors. I don’t feel like sitting around stressed, tuning in fearfully for every car noise, waiting until 10pm before knowing I’m safe (unless they arrive tomorrow on the Saturday – I’m really only ‘safe’ from Sunday afternoon onwards). Then I’ll drive by in the evening and if their car is down and their lights on – and the air conditioner going, because I’ll hear it driving past – I’ll keep going and sleep where I always do: in a rest area next to the highway.
It’s free there, though I am paying rent here. And it’s much, much more peaceful. Highway traffic compared with the noise these people and that machine makes is preferable by a mile.
UPDATE Saturday 7th Sept. 24.
I don’t mind being forced to enjoy nature. If there’s a feeling that I’m being forced then it indicates to me that I’ve lost a little inspiration and appreciation of nature at that moment. But I do mind being forced out of where I’m paying money to rent. So it took a bit to come to enjoy laying in the van for three hours, from 6.30pm to 9.30pm, listening to the radio and watching a few visible stars and a low crescent moon through the dusty windows.
As ever, my heart is beating fast when I do the drive past after 9.30pm to see if the neighbours are down or not and I can go back into the garden shed (others call it a “cabin”) or have to stay in a rest area for a couple of nights. Last night – precious vacancy next door. Good thing, too, I was dead tired and fell asleep after an hour of actively trying to dispel the stress of the horrible Friday Threat.