h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I think he's moving out At least, he's been loading boxes into his car for the past few days, so fingers crossed.

That just leaves bollockbrain next door and hos bloody subwoofer BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOOOOM BOOM BOOM He only moved in about three months ago I've got at least nine more months of that to endure His only saving grace is that he goes away every Friday evening and doesn't come back until Sunday evening, and he was away for two full weeks at Christmas Maybe he'll go away at spring break too, and in the summer

When I was in college, a friend of mine and I shared a two bedroom apartment in the middle of a block of 12. Imagine two six packs, one on top of the other and we were the front, bottom, middle one. We had to abide by noise coming from three directions. (The pretty sorority girls above us were the worst. Why is it that pretty young women can't walk quietly barefooted? Nevermind, that's another story.) We stayed in town (Huntsville, TX, home of Death Row) for Spring Break one year. Almost everyone else in the building was gone for the week. It would have been wonderfully quiet...

But the KiKKer* who had the bedroom next to mine left his clock radio on. It wasn't blaringly loud, but it was on. When I wanted to sleep, that country & western beat would seep through the wall and into my brain. By Monday, I'd had enough.

So, I found the breaker box. I found his unit's switches. I flicked one at a time off, went back to my bedroom to see if I could still hear the radio, then went back to the box to flick back on the last breaker and flick off the next until I found the one that went to that bedroom. I was being considerate. I found it very unlikely that out of 6-10 breakers per apartment that a bedroom and the kitchen would be on the same breaker; so no rotten food in the fridge when they returned.

On Saturday morning, I turned it back on as I wasn't sure when he was getting back. The only evidence was a blinking 12:00 on his alarmclock.


*KiKK was a Country & Western radio station in Houston through the 80's. Their billboards and bumperstickers proclaimed "Proud to be a KiKKer!" with the K's stylized to look like cowboy boots. Whether the three K's in their logo was intentional or not, I don't know, but I'm sure they didn't have a large black audience. Anyway, calling someone a "kikker" indicates a certain lifestyle best represented by films like Urban Cowboy with a touch of Mississippi's Burning.

He's gone

Hopefully, your next neighbor will be tolerable.

One hopes so. Just recently it seems as if there's been a clause in the leases of all the apartments surrounding mine that you must do everything in your power to annoy Gosho. Dogs that bark incessantly, foul-smelling cigarettes, phlegm gobbing marathons, slamming doors, and now the subwoofer, and yes, I can hear it as I type, like someone is gently but persistently thumping on the other side of the wall

All you need is a colicky baby

Nooooooo That's the very last thing I need.

And while we're talking about annoyances, the building site next door...

BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP

Starting at 7am, ending at 6pm, almost without a break, six days a week. Why the does everything that moves have to have one of those things? They'll be fitting them to people next

Mind you, bearing in mind the way so many people today walk around with their heads bowed, firmly fixed on their phone's screen and utterly oblivious of where they're going, that might not be such a bad idea.

Well. There we all were on Thursday evening, watching smoke pouring from the building we all call(ed) home, and I get talking to the bloke next door who loves his bass turned up to 11. Guess what he does for a living.

He builds high-end hi-fi speakers. Naturally

Still, at least I don't have to deal with that any more, nor the ing machines - the new apartment is at the other side of the complex and (almost) out of earshot of them... at least with the windows closed

And the new neighbours have, so far, proved to be a relatively quiet bunch *fingers crossed*.

Posting that lead me to think about the traditional hand sign for 'OK', with thumb and index finger making an 'O' with other fingers pointing upwards.

I can't remember the last time I saw someone use this sign. I know that in some cultures it's used for a vulgarity, but that's never stopped us 'Yanks' before. Why has it gone out of fashion? Maybe it just stopped being used in films and TV and the younger generations never picked it up.

Good question. I can't remember the last time I saw it, other than in documentaries involving divers, for whom sign language is obviously a lot more important, and that one is used for 'okay'.

Have I missed something? Have you been on fire? Have you moved?

Yes, not me personally, and yes. And in that order F50359?thread=8307611

Dear Bob almighty - I'm surrounded by coughers and gobbers and flobbers in the new apartment

I'm trying to eat my breakfast you s. Gone off it now

Smokers? Lovely!

Could be worse. They could have babies.

True. There are very few kids in this complex. And an increasing number of hipsters

I don't know for sure if they're smokers or not Mina, and I'm not getting those awful pongs like I was with that bloke who kicked this conversation off, pee-yew and poo gosh, but it's a pretty safe bet.

By the way, one of them just started as I'm writing this