Road Rage.

[Parrothead]

Tim:

Good hijack, but it's an urban legend. A twist on it details her "after skiing" career as an ICU nurse. In the story, the hospital where she works does not allow her to answer the phone, "Picabo I.C.U".

In reality, she is an analyst for CBS Sports.

Good try though.

[Serenity]

I have upstairs neighbors from hell. They're like vampires - they're up at all hours of the night. And they're loud, I'll walk the dog across the street and I can hear them as though the windows were open; nothing but swear words all the time. The kids' bedtime is actually midnight! I put my kids in bed at 8:30-9:00pm but the 7-8 year old kids upstairs are constantly thumping until midnight. It then gets quiet but you can still hear people pacing back and forth until 2pm! I swear they do some sort of illegal substance that keeps them up. I can't wait to move to my new house!

Oh, look at the time! I wonder if my downstairs neighbors are complaining that they can hear me walking around at this time of night?

<small>[ 12-15-2004, 12:55 AM: Message edited by: Serenity ]</small>

[piqaboo]

Serenity - its darn tough for downstairs to make enough noise to bother upstairs, but you could perhaps try this:
get up at 3:30 am. Make a nice breakfast, listen to radio. ~ 4 am, locate beams in ceiling - use the tapping method not the nifty gadget method. Use hammer and nail to make starter holes to ensure drill goes where you want it to. Begin drilling holes to hold ceiling fan mounts.

Do one room a day for as long as you can.

Ensure none of this noise can be heard by a security guard standing outside on the walkway.


My old downstairs cattycorner neighbor used to thump on his ceiling to quiet his upstairs neighbor. It apparently relieved his feelings without quieting the noise. It also put one hole in his ceiling (using broom handle), so he switched to a basket ball.

<small>[ 12-15-2004, 03:58 PM: Message edited by: piqaboo ]</small>

[Serenity]

Thanks for the suggestions. I tried a more direct approach. They started yelling a lot around 11PM, a lot of thumping and kids crying...had to call the police. Tomorrow we will complain to the front office. I wasted half an hour trying to hear the police questioning without deciphering what the commotion was.

[piqaboo]

DId you ever go knock on their door and let them know their sound transmitted?

[Serenity]

Twice; the first time with infant in arms at 10:30pm to ask them to turn down their bass speaker, which kept thumping for two hours to the beat of their rap music (the walls were vibrating). It was like "those cars" with the lousy speakers driving around the 'hood; the speakers are blown but they keep thumpin' and thumpin'.

The second time was to ask them to stop practicing the drums so late at night (of course it came directly above the baby's room).

Last night it was a fight between the teenage son and a neighbor friend...I guess they were wrestling with each other while the females screamed at the top of their lungs to get them to stop. Glad the police showed up.

[piqaboo]

Icky neighbors.

[Serenity]

Today the roads were icy in the morning. What a mess! Bumper to bumper traffic at 5 miles an hour. Trucks trying to go up slightly hilly slopes moving side to side ....and the sun came out and melted the ice off the road....and a lot of people didn't show up. Now, if I could only pull a bathtub of hot water up to the computer and soak for 'til supper time

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

I nominate Sandy Eggo for Most Creative Traffic Jams.

Tuesday, large tree across the freeway through Balboa Park. Entire freeway closed.

Wednesday AM, truck lost a load of cement, packaged in 100-lb bags, on I-15 during rush hour. Several lanes closed.

Wednesday PM, some knothead lost a boat off of the trailer, on the Coronado Bay Bridge, for afternoon rush hour. Bridge closed briefly, several lanes closed longer, major traffic mess on I-5 southbound.

Thursday AM, large construction crane parked on the lakebed of Forest Hodges falls onto I-15 northbound. Exit closed, several lanes closed, southbound traffic achieves an eight-mile backup on the southbound side, due to commuter sight-seeing.

I can't wait to find out what's coming next.

[mmichaelson]

Geez Selma! Sounds like a regular circus/zoo out there!

I thought traffic around here was bad!

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

It seems to be "Variations On The Theme of Obstacles Dropped Onto Freeways In Traffic".

We need a score for this. We have four acts already; with a cast, a libretto, and a score I'm sure we can get it up to operatic speed soon.

OT can play the hero, a beleaguered traffic cop. I'll be the insane 911 operator who sends the rescue copter to the wrong end of the county. Who else wants a part?

[lioness]

oooh!!!! i do, i do!

when i used to commute in NJ there were some just plain 'dumb' people w/ no disregard for anyone else on the road. i saw this guy once driving with his laptop open in front of him on this dashboard!!!

so, count me in. i’ll compose some beautiful and twiztid string arrangements for this one!

[audiogirl]

I'll play the part of the self-absorbed, talentless 19-year-old who is sure she's missed her chance at superstardom because the traffic jam kept her from getting to the American Idol auditions.

Or I'll just be the token pregnant woman, giving birth in the back seat of a car. (No costume necessary.)

[treebeau]

Ummm, are you trying to TELL us something?
Is this the first notification of that "costume" ??
If so, congrats!

Regards,
Tim B.

[piqaboo]

Audiogirl, LOL!!!!


I want to be the crane operator who knocked down the powerlines last year, closing I-5 ("the 5") freeway multiple times over the next week - a sort of "prequel" event.

[mmichaelson]

ROFL!

You guys are too funny!

Congrats, Audiogirl!

I want to play too! Can I be the typical blond driver putting on makeup and talking on the phone and smoking while driving (although I do NOT smoke at all or put makeup on in the car, I AM blond and DO have a cell phone)

[barfle]

In the beltway around Washington, DC (AKA Interstate 495) there is a drawbridge over the Potomac.

Now that highway engineer went to a different school than I did.

Fortunately, it doesn't open very often, but when it does, naturally all traffic stops.

And audiogirl, if the rumors are true, I hope you and your imminent progeny are in perfect health, that the delivery takes an hour after you get to the hospital, and is no more bother than indigestion.

[Serenity]

GRIDLOCK! Average speed leaving Boston is 10mph!

[Shapley]

I'll be driving down to my parents house. Because of the heavy volume of traffic, the normally forty-five minute drive is expected to take fifty minutes.

[McCridhe]

I remember driving to Ride of the Valkyries a couple times.

I had a '77 Pontiac Grand Prix, 400 ci engine at the time... The thing with a great maul like hood and evil looking head lights.

Down town Des Moines.

That wasn't nearly so bad as driving my Escort Wagon (called Igor) down my alternate route to Hwy 24, through Taunton, in Southern Massachusetts... That little beast might not have had much poop, but it was great handling... *Evil cackle*

But Massachusetts was a trip anyway... my first week working up there, I got aggrivated by the Massachutti flocking habits. You know, drive as fast as you can until you encounter a flock that's going slower than you are and snuggle right in.
I ended up in the middle of one some how.
I wanted out, so the fast lane opened up suddenly... so I flogged poor ol' Igor to 80 mph and pulled out. Igor was a 16 year old car at that time... meant for 55 mph. 80 mph was pegging the spedometer. I was shaking rattling and rolling, and working on getting around that last 18 wheeler when the shape in my rear view carified into a trooper.

AH GREAT! There goes my class 9 rating on insurance! DAMN! As if we need another expense!
Well. The 18 wheeler wasn't backing off. The trooper sure wasn't, so I plastered the pedal to the floor and eeked out a fraction more speed... enough to get around the truck, and pulled into the middle lane again, expecting the trooper to follow me.

WHHHOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!! The trooper passed.

:confused:

Wasn't complaining mind you... but I didn't expect that! So I just flogged ol' Igor home and didn't worry about watchin' the spedometer during rush hour again.