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

My guess is the Texas heat is getting to it. If it starts to obscure my odometer I'll have to replace it.

Amazon Kindle books are my Petty Hate today. They bring out new editions of books but don't link them to the previous edition. The only way I know that I already have the old edition is by checking my content. For example, today's deal includes a number of books by Wilbur Smith, but they're new editions. I thought that I already owned one of the titles but tapping the book didn't give the usual "You bought this title on..." I checked my content and, yes, I do own that book.

I've fallen foul of this issue before and haven't noticed till it's too late to get a refund. (You used to be allowed two weeks, but that may have changed.) What's even more annoying is that there's no point telling Amazon about the problem because they probably won't do anything about it.

Why me, why do I have to put with noisy neighbours and noisy traffic. I can hear my upstairs neighbour talking so loud (probably talk through a megaphone) and on top of that she is playing her music full blast with all her windows and doors open. The council maisonette communal door is always left open as well as the communal door to the back gardens, which amplifies the noise from outside and the noise inside to unbearable levels. I have to wear ear defenders at all times and that dampens some of the noise but not all of it as I live in a very noisy neighbourhood. The council will do nothing.

I feel sorry for you. I once had a downstairs neighbour who played his "music" so loud that small items (scissors and such) started to move around my living room table. To make things worse, he was not in a mental state to be spoken to anytime after dinner. (I think there may have been a relation between mental state and volume. He probably tried to scare away the unicorns and mauve elephants).
Later he complained about the noise we made by walking around barefoot.

I have found that walking barefoot, or just in socks, can be noisier than walking in shoes. The heel seems to not the floor harder, which makes more noise. I agree, though, that it's an unfair complaint when compared with his loud music.

Add to that the first conversation I had with the man (first day I lived there), which included "I hope you have a good insurance policy" and "I have done time you know..." and that packed in the smell of cannabis.

After living beneath three sorority girls in college, I'm convinced that women who normally wear high heels are the loudest when barefoot. They definitely hit their heels hard when walking (or doing aerobics, or practicing as acrobats for the circus or whatever it was they were doing.) While I never complained to them, or the apartment management about how noisy they often were, they didn't hesitate to call the police on me when I was listening to my stereo with volume turned all the way to 3 on a Sunday afternoon. The cops were amused when they heard how "loud" it was and left.

This reminds me of the stereo I used to have, with a very aggressive wake up function. It would automatically turn up the volume in three steps starting at 1, then 4, then 7 then 10 and turn back off after an hour or so.
And then I went on holiday for four weeks and forgot to turn it off. My neighbours never mentioned it to me, but they must have heard it. The same CD every day. I can only hope they liked my choice of music.

That same apartment with the stomping sorority girls upstairs, we had three "cowboys" next door on my side. During a Spring break that I stayed in town, the one with the room next to mine left his clock radio tuned to a Country & Western station (worse, it was "new country"). It wasn't overly loud, but it was just enough for that to seep through my wall while trying to sleep. After two nights of this, I had enough. So, I went to the end of the building with the breaker boxes. I found the one for their unit (1 of 12) and started switching breakers off, one at a time, going back to my room to listen, then back to switch them back on until I found the right one. (I didn't want to switch off their kitchen breaker and spoil all their food.)

I switched it back on the following Saturday morning, not knowing exactly when they'd be back so I still had another nearly sleepless night to contend with.

Go to your doctor and get a letter* saying this is having a serious detrimental effect on your health.

This will put the council on the spot if they if they do not do anything, if it continues or gets serious you will have the housing authority by the legal duty.

* Send a copy to the Citizens Advice and the Noise Abatement Society.

(http://noiseabatementsociety.com/helpline-and-support/contact-us/)

Good luck

Topday's PH: Insect bites. I try to remember to put anti-bite stuff on before doing gardening but yesterday I got bitten. Swelling is still increasing today - thankfully not too itchy.

Today's PH: Insect bites. I try to remember to put anti-bite stuff on before doing gardening but yesterday I got bitten. Swelling is still increasing today - thankfully not too itchy.

A good way to alleviate itchy insect bites is to clean the weal and apply a drop or two of hot sauce (like Tabasco). The capcaicin in the pepper will draw out histamines in the area.

Reminds me of the following wisdom:

To relieve the pain in a certain location, introduce more pain elsewhere. Maybe works for ichthing as well.

regarding itching: thinking about it can cause it. Once saw the word "Jeuk" (Dutch word for "Itch") as a big grafitti next to the train track. A lot of people started scratching themselves.

One way that pain principle is applied is the Canadian trick of holding a piece of ice on the wrist below the thumb and fore finger to control tooth ache.

Is that akin to the wristbands used for sea sickness?

I don't know.

There is a significant relationship to acupuncture/acupressure for somnolence and drunkenness though.

Never thought of hedgehogs as a hangover cure, although I can imagine the sobering effect when I think about it now.

(poor hedgehog)

PHotD: Books where the introduction is so long that a Kindle sample doesn't get as far as the actual text. The Salmon of Doubt by DNA is currently on offer for 99p on Kindle. Reviews are mixed, so I decided to use the Look Inside feature. I learned nothing that would help me to decide whether to buy the book.

If anyone has read The Salmon of Doubt I'd like to know their opinion of it, particularly if they have the Kindle version. Some of the bad reviews suggest that there are differences between the ebook and the tree book.