Mortality

[greenstorm]

Dreamed that I was back in my old home, the one I grew up in, and I was scheduled to die the next day. I didn't want to.

Now I'm awake in a hotel and it's killing cold outside. I'm tired but the person in the room above me is walking around.

One of the things that makes me bad at cities is how much trouble I have with people-sounds from the ceiling.

Comments

[amazon_syren]

My wife has the same problem (with people-sounds).

I would love to be able to find us an affordable (ahahahaha...) bungalow nearby that was fully detached.
It ain't gonna happen - at least not without (a) an additional 4th part-time job for me, and (b) a pretty massive down-payment suddenly Just Lying Around. But it's something I'd like to be able to do.
I think she'd find Home a lot more of a refuge if we were somewhere fully-detached.

[greenstorm]

There was a party by the neighbours across the way that shook this house with its bass, I'm honestly surprised at how well sound travels. But I'm not listening to people's *feet*

Before I gave up on the city I had thoughts of lining a room with styrofoam and putting a fountain (for white noise) in it.

I wish you many years of absentee upstairs neighbours.

[amazon_syren]

Honestly, I think occasional loud bass from across the street would be manageable.
It's the heavy feet, drumming and, in particular, the literal screaming (small, often excited child, sure, but also two adults fighting really horribly) that are doing it.

But I know hearing our old neighbour's music coming through the shared wall didn't do my girl any favours either.

Fully Detached with my various other loved ones nearby SVP!

But, in the mean time, I'll take a sudden urge to backpack across Canada, or do a nation-wide band tour, or something to get (in particular) That Guy out of our ceiling.

[greenstorm]

I did have someone who I'm pretty sure had the condo above as an investment property once, and another person who I'm pretty sure worked shift work (2 weeks on, one off). But I have also had the yelling and possibly DV people (felt kind of normal at the time, but that was a long time ago) and many children. The children screaming still activates all the adrenaline stuff even though they were happy. Which is all to say: my condolences.

The bass got much more manageable when I realized they wouldn't do it every weekend. Throwing a firework into the dry field next door in August was a one-off occurrence too. I haven't moved because of them yet.

I wish That Guy so much success in drumming in Europe.

[yarrowkat]

noise is one of the worst things about cities. at least with light pollution you can usually control your specific environment enough to screen it out (ie, wearing an eye mask). but noise is also vibration and while earplugs can dampen it if one can tolerat them, it's still very feel-able, and nothing actually makes it go away.

[greenstorm]

Yeah, I'm very very aware of noise as a physical sensation (it's why music over headphones feels wrong to me) and it's so present. Reducing noise is like whack-a-mole: I have a lingering desire to move all my refrigerators into their own sound-dampened room someday, but I doubt that will ever happen.

[yarrowkat]

ohgod, refrigerators. i feel you. i have a mini-fridge in the yurt and my top priority in purchasing it was that it be QUIET. it is actually the quietest fridge i've ever met, which is not soundless, but it doesn't wake me up through my earplugs as many other fridges have done, so it's alright. small electronic background sounds drive me nuts, as much as unnecessary LEDs in a dark room (and aren't all LEDs unnecessary, when it comes right down to it?)

[greenstorm]

The worst thing about the LEDs is that when they're set in a white plastic splitter cube or something, you can electrical tap over the LEDs all you want but the plastic is so thin and white that the light still comes through the rest of the cube. Argh.

Thank goodness, at least, for wood heat instead of central furnaces.

[yarrowkat]

i had a humidifier one time with what felt like the world's brightest LED that just could not be muted by anything. i taped a piece of cardboard over the light and that helped some but it was so bright that it still seeped out the sides because of that kind of thin white plastic housing. i like to run a humidifier at night especially in winter when it's so dry and cold here and they nearly all have these super bright LEDs that can't be turned off... and i can't sleep in a room that's not dark.

wood heat is a real blessing! i say, laying in the yurt with my bare toes pointed toward the fire and the cat purring in the liquid warmth of it.