The Walls are Thin

             Three weeks ago the high volume of a neighbor's television began invading our apartment bedroom and made it near impossible to fall asleep. Of all the rooms to have this issue at nights, it had to be the room we need quiet to sleep in. The odd part about it was that the neighbor that lives in the apartment next to where our bedroom wall is, has been relatively quiet since he moved in a little more than a year ago. I only physically saw him a handful of times, and just spoke to him once last Christmas when he both exited our apartments at the same moment. There was an awkward silence between us as we both locked our doors, so cringing inside, I blurted out, "Merry Christmas", to kill the silence, and took my time locking my door so he would finish his sooner and be on his way before me. At night, his snoring does echo through the wall, but its not loud enough to be considered a nuisance. In fact, its near comical that its worth him doing it. A loud television set it a completely different story, but we couldn't figure out why this usually quiet neighbor would all of sudden have his television set blasted all night long into the morning hours the next day.

              We came up with a number of theories to help explain the bizarre behavior; needs noise to make it seem like he is home to fool police surveillance, needs noise to drown out the sound of cooking meth (if there's any noise involved with that creation process), gets drunk or high at nights and falls asleep with the TV on, he's deaf, recently lost his job and stays awake at night in a depressed state, just bought a TV and there wasn't one in that room until now, overdosed or killed himself weeks ago and the TV has been running since, or finally the universal - I'm going to do whatever I want without any consideration of others around me. Most people renting an apartment might go immediately to the landlord to make a complaint, but we had contacted him recently regarding our broken door bell/buzzer, and to pile on a loud TV coming from a neighbor only a few days after would've overloaded him and we could possibly forget about ever getting the buzzer fixed anytime in the near future. With three weeks of unsound sleep, she proposed the idea that we give the neighbor one more week to shape up, otherwise we ask the landlord to get involved. The noise was brutal, it would go on from 9 pm at night to 10 am the next morning. Who could watch television that continuously at nights? When we would turn off our television before trying to fall asleep, the silence would make the outside noise even more of a nuisance. The only way to drown out the noise would to turn our set back on at a low volume to balance it out.

             Then came that one night that really started to push things over the edge. It was so loud we had to abandon the bedroom and make for the couch in the living room around 4 am. Although it was nice to have quiet at night for the first time in many weeks, two people trying to sleep on a couch isn't the most comfortable thing in the world. Seeing the noise was bothering her more than it was me, I volunteered to go back into the bedroom so she could have the couch and I would have the bed (and noise). I heard the TV as if it was my own, and actually turned mine on with the sound muted, so I could figure out what channel he was watching. It took only a few minutes to pinpoint it on an infomercial about buying jeeps. He watched another one after that. I felt it a bit odd that someone would be watching infomercials all night, that's usually something only elderly people do. This guy is in his late 20's or early 30's, and come to think of it, the noise we hear is usually news shows or infomercials like the one I was hearing this night. It didn't add up. Should this guy be watching MTV or movies at least? It only increased belief in one of my theories that he's getting drunk or high and falling asleep without any awareness of the TV being on or what channel its even set to. Although we were going to give the neighbor a week to change his ways, the night was so bad that she wanted to slip a note under his door that morning to ask him to lower his television set at nights. I agreed, and after several drafts, this is the final version we came up with that explained everything without seeming too combative:

November 19, 2012

Dear Neighbor,

Could you please keep the TV volume to a minimum during the overnight hours (12am-8am)? It has been difficult to sleep at night during these past two weeks since these walls appear to be thin and the very loud TV sound is coming through. The TV volume was never so loud before from your side, so I’m not sure why it’s coming through the wall so much as it has been, but it’s quite loud now.  I hope everything is OK.

Thank you for your understanding,

Your next door neighbor 

             It's a very tricky thing to send a note such as this. Since we really don't know this person, there's no telling how he may react. Plus, it could open an entire can of worms of back-n-forth games just to be spiteful for calling him out. Even though we were in the right, sometimes that doesn't mean justice will prevail, and it could end up making things worse. With no end in sight, in this case we had no choice but to try the note. It was placed sticking out the side of his door, and twenty minutes later we saw that it was gone, so we knew he got it. The funny part is that even with the letter, it didn't seem like the television volume was getting any lower. This same day, she was having a friend staying over for the night that I needed to wake up 6:30 am the next morning to drive to JFK airport. With the couch in the living room now occupied with her friend, we had no choice but to stay in the bedroom and put up with the racket. Besides, having to get up early the next morning for the airport run and having to go to work, I really needed a good night's sleep. This would be the first night after we had delivered the letter to our neighbor and it would serve as a test if this letter was going to do any good. Defiantly, as a car splashing a puddle of water onto a pedestrian waiting at the bus stop, the television noise was as loud as it had been all the other nights. What I was afraid was going to happen, did happen, the letter fell on deaf ears.

             With only a handful hours of sleep, I work up early and drove her friend to the airport. When I exited off the highway at Hillside Ave., I was stationed at a red light and saw a city bus was creeping up behind me. The bus came to a stop and all the vehicles in my lane were standing still waiting for the light to turn green. Seconds later, something smashes us from the back and jolts the car forward. It was turning out to be a really great week! I spun my head around to look at the bus driver and he gave me one of these 'my bad' gestures to his chest. The bus hit my back bumper from a stopped position, so it wasn't like he rammed me while he was in motion. It didn't sound like I had any damage beyond a possible dent, I was at a busy highway exit with the light about to turn green, there was a city bus full of passengers behind me on their way to work or school, plus I had to get her friend to the airport in time for her flight. I wasn't in the mood and it wasn't necessary, so once the light turned green I took off on my merry way instead of going through the routine of getting out of my car, looking at my bumper, putting my hands in the air, holding up traffic at a busy exit, waiting two hours for a cop to finally show up, I just wanted to get out of there. Once I dropped the friend off at the airport, I did get out of my car to check the back bumper, and as I suspected, there was no damage than what was there before. When I finally arrived home, I inspected the bumper even further and realized if you put alot of pressure on it, it's a tad bit loose, but nothing that some Krazy Glue could fix.

             A couple of night later there was another powerful batch of noisy soundwaves entering our bedroom from a neighbor's television. Clearly the letter was having no impact, and we were giving this neighbor a week to redeem himself before we go to the landlord, but it was so loud she wanted to knock on his door the next morning and tell him in person to lower the television. While she proposed that solution, I was going over other more sinister remedies to solve the problem. One of them being calling the landlord the next day and suggesting maybe he's dead so police and EMS workers barge in on him while he's cooking meth. Another was taking a piece of electrical tape and taping his buzzer down 4 am so it rings loud in his apartment until he comes downstairs himself to remove the tape. The last devious attack plan was using Krazy Glue and inserting it in his key holes so he would have issues locking and unlocking his door and mailbox the next day, combined with stealing his door mat. The problem with these sinister ideas was that since we gave him the letter a few days previously, obviously he would know who did it and then that whole situation could turn ugly. That's the reason I really didn't want to send the letter in the first place, it actually took away our ability to retaliate, but at the time she was going nuts and we needed to do something, so I just went along. The only other option besides telling the landlord, would be filing a complaint with 311. Who knows how long before someone shows up for that(if they even do show up), and calling a cop on someone also falls into that tricky area of opening a whole can of worms. Someone could dig up an insignificant reason to return the favor and then the whole thing just gets stupid. Then there's also the chance the landlord could get upset with us for bringing cops around (nobody wants cops around), and we could forget about ever getting our doorbell fixed.

             As she said she would, 9 am that morning she went to the neighbors door and knocked. I stayed in the bedroom and waited for gunshots. For a good five minutes she was out there and I was wondering what was going on. Maybe he invited her into his apartment to show her his television set in perhaps an attempt to explain how and why the noise was coming through the wall so much. She did return eventually (without any bullet wounds) and sprang a bombshell - it wasn't him!!! This neighbor, who I though was rude and cooking meth, was actually quite nice and even had kids. I did recall hearing the occasional footsteps of kids running when he first moved in, but not a peep since of any kids running or crying, etc. As I figured he might, he even invited her to check the room out herself to prove its not his television set making the noise, but she declined and took him at his word. He stated he rarely even watches any TV in the room that shared a wall with our bedroom, and he was going to write a return letter explaining all this to us, but he didn't find the time yet to do so. Once we had this revelation, things started to make sense. We always assumed the noise had to be coming from next door because it made the most sense, but originally we both felt as if somehow the noise was emitting from the outside, like a car radio passing by on the street but never going away. That turned our attention to the fact that the noise had to be coming from an apartment underneath our bedroom.

             I was going out to grab an egg sandwich for breakfast, but before leaving the building I decided I should do a little detective work. I went to the floor beneath mine and honed in on two apartments that lie under the area where our bedroom is located. I put my ear on the door furthest left and heard what sounded like a really loud television set tuned in to news show - the M.O. for our perp. I know an older lady lives in this apartment, she's friendly towards me, so I felt bad having to knock on her door to hurl accusations whether right or wrong. Recently, it seems her daughter and grandchildren have moved in with her for whatever reason and I heard them all in there. I took a few breathes and calmly knocked on the door, the older lady answered. Before I had a chance to speak, her phone rang and she picked it up quickly. Her daughter came over to me holding a baby and asked what I wanted. I mentioned the loud TV, and within a split second she pointed to the apartment next door, which is the apartment directly under me. With the other lady done with her phone call, they both gave me the full story. There's a very old lady next door to them who needs healthcare workers to come in and care for her around the clock. I always thought the lady I saw going into that apartment was someone who lived there, but she was just a home healthcare nurse. I never seen the real tenant who actually lives there. Basically the tenant is very old and has to turn the television set very high in order to hear. It all made sense; the news shows, the infomercials, it had to be an old person. If I thought my bedroom was a disaster at night because of this hard-hearing woman, these two ladies who live right next to her have it even worse. They said they too can't sleep at night and its a real nightmare. They knocked on the neighboring door to get the nurse to perhaps do something about it, but the nurse gave a response that there was nothing she could do. The ladies even reported the problem to the landlord, but apparently that wasn't going anywhere I either (as I figured).

             They suggested I too knock on their door so that maybe if more tenants complain, maybe someone would finally lower the noise. I gave the door a knock and seconds later a nurse opened the door. As soon as I saw she had a stud pierced into her nostril, I knew I'd be wasting my time, but I went through the motions anyway and explained my situation. I can't say she was exactly rude or nasty, but her attitude was a little sassy, and more or less she gave me the same 'there's nothing we can do about it' response the two ladies next door got. The main problem is she really doesn't sleep a normal six to eight hours at a time during the night like normal people. I'm guessing due to health issues, she can only sleep a few minutes at a time and then wakes up, so that's why she pretty much watching TV all day and all night. The nurse claimed she'll make a note about it on the sign-in sheet which apparently the nurses use to log after their shifts. I asked her to try to see what she can do and just left it at that. Now that I had positive identification on who the culprit was, I went back up to my apartment to report to the story. Then there was a knock on my door. I wonder if it was the nurse, so I ran to open it, only to find it was the landlord - perfect timing! He was there by coincidence making his usual monthly sweeps for apartments that may have any infestation issues. We waived him off about that, but he did have some updates regarding our inoperative doorbell/buzzer. Since the building and doorbell system is quite old, they need to rewire the whole system beyond just our apartment. He told us someone should be coming in next week (although I won't hold my breath on that) to fix it. While he was there, I told him about the loud TV issue with the old lady downstairs and he confirmed he knew about it issue, probably from a call from the two ladies next door. He told me he was going to contact the tenant's nephew to see if he could intervene and somehow get her to lower the TV at nights. So doorbell/buzzer issue possibly solved, loud TV issue defined but not solved, and car's back bumper loose.

              I'm just glad I didn't Krazy Glue my neighbor's locks........

Full Military Base Lock Down

             With the baseball season long gone and no Saturday baseball at Yankee Stadium, my uncle called and asked if I would be interested in attending an Army football game at their West Point command center. With the weather not too chilly yet and never having seen a college game before, I said yeah and we grabbed tickets for the next available home game. Tickets were only thirty-five bucks and I was able to get a pair online the night before. They also have tickets at the box office on game day, but for the big games such as against Navy or Air Force, its best to buy them online sooner. Their opponent for this game was going to be the Ball State Cardinals, from Indiana apparently, although for some reason I thought they were from Ohio.

              For some reason I always thought West Point was way upstate, like Albany, and would take several hours to reach. After printing out the driving directions I saw the journey should take a little over an hour. We ended up taking the 1-87 North and then switched over to the Palisades Parkway North, near Bear Mountain, then after Route 6 East, all which included a scenic view of trees changing colors as we end into the final months of the year. Just as the directions predicted, we were in the town of West Point in just about an hour and had to painstakingly trail a car adhering to the 30mph speed limit. With the road leading into the town only having one lane, we were unfortunately stuck behind this one vehicle for quite a while. We had directions, but weren't actually sure where the stadium was located, so once we saw some guys tossing a football around in a parking lot, we decided to park near them and ask. The place looked like some type of welcoming center, and beyond that there was a sign indicating that there was a museum on grounds, so with about two hours to waste before game time, we went around to check everything out. It turns out the stadium was just a few minutes down the road we were on, so we were able to take our time in the visiting center and museum.

             First we started out with the center, there's a big information desk once you get in for any questions or directions. Towards the right there's a gift shop which mainly sells items and gear related to the Black Knights Army Football team. To the left is a mini-museum, an educational walk-through of the United States Military's history as well as a summary of what West Point cadets have to go through if they choose to attend the academy. Where as under typical college circumstances,incoming college students bring their Playstation and Xbox and other amenities of home, with the military academy you only bring yourself and that's it! The academy provides cadets with everything else, right down to the deodorant and toothpaste. There's also a looping video of what each cadet has to go through on daily basis, to persuade or dissuade anybody thinking of making the leap. We make a quick stop to the gift shop before heading out to the museum. Under normal circumstances the museum on Saturdays doesn't open until 10:30am and we would've had to wait a little, but luckily for some reason on this particular day they had it open already at 9:30am and we were able to go in without waiting. Admission is free and there's three floors worth of stuff to look at. There's plenty of really old stuff going back to hundreds and hundreds of years ago, so I wasn't sure if I would be able to use any flash on my camera as it could potentially damage something, but since there weren't any signs, I snapped away.

             The main floor and the upstairs contain a wide spectrum of uniforms, weapons, and military gear from the days to the knights in shinning armor to modern times. The best the museum has to offer is located in the basement level. In addition to the bathroom and water fountains, there really explosive stuff is down there. Once you enter you're immediately confronted with canons and all sorts of field artillery, mainly from the Civil War. Then there's jeeps, early-model tanks, and then for good measure an actual Atomic Bomb!! Hoping it wasn't active, I walked over and went nose-to-nose with these little toy I've heard so much about from history books and movies. I thought it would be a little bigger, its actually about the size of one of those supped-up BBQ grills that real barbecue fanatics use. Towards the back wall they had all sorts of machine guns, from semi-automatic to these big gargantuan things that someone like Rambo would carry around. Not to be outdone, there was also a wall dedicated to bazookas and other type of anti-tank weapons that I've only seen in movies. In all, there were enough guns in the West Point Museum to supply a small army in any generation. If anyone has the burning desire to see what an atomic bomb looks like and has no time machine to go back to 1945 Japan, then this is the place to go.

             Game time was closing in at an hour away, so we left the World War II jeep behind and went back to the car to make way to Michie Stadium. Unlike the welcome center and museum, the football stadium is on the actual military academy grounds, hence on a military base that we needed to be screened at a checkpoint before entering. They have those bomb-detectors they scan under vehicles with, plus I saw they were searching the trunks of some of the other cars. The soldier we had come up to us just asked to see drivers licenses/IDs and only took a quick peek at the backseat. He waived us through without asking to look in the trunk or scanning under the vehicle, I guess we didn't look creepy enough. When we drove through there was a toll-booth like structure had to pass under, so I'm sure there were invisible scanners we passed through to get a nice jolt of radiation in our bodies for the game. Since we didn't any have special parking pass, we had to take the the generic parking spot towards the end of the campus which cost twenty-bucks and requires a mile long march to the stadium. It was about a ten-minute drive from the entrance to the actual lot, and nearly another twenty minutes walking to the stadium. Although the view of the Hudson River, the mountains, and the foliage changing color was spectacular, that walk up hill after hill towards Michie Stadium was a military-style workout in itself. There are shuttle buses which run from some of the lots to the stadium, but we opted to walk it, not knowing how grueling it would actually be. We saw the living quarters for what would have to be the high-ranking officials on base. Military Police personnel were station at some of the corners to direct traffic, and one of them barked at us for not crossing at the crosswalk. Apparently, he would have a stroke if he ever saw how people crossed streets in a small city called New York.

             As we walked along a large pond I begun to see the stadium and noticed lines began to form near the entrance gate. In front of us, cadets dressed in white with their hats on seemed to make up the bulk of the crowd. At the gate, there's another security check like most other sporting events, but I guess since its a military event, they require IDs for people eighteen and over. Not knowing this, my uncle actually left his in the car, and with another long walk to the car too painful to imagine, he decided to go forward and see what would happen. It turns out since I was with him and did have my ID, they allowed him to enter after asking me if I could vouch for him. After that battle we were in the main area which is geared towards the fans, especially kids. There were some jungle-gyms and bouncy houses for kids to hop around in. There was also a tent were kids (and probably adults too) could go in and get their faces painted in camo for the game. We still had time to kill before kickoff so we grabbed some beers and sandwiches and hung out by the pond. I had a sausage-n-peppers hero with a Bud Light. My uncle spotted fish in the water, while waiting for the game to start, we tossed some bread to them to pass the time. Then all of a sudden, a canon shot off across the pond which almost made me drop my beer and hero into the water. I felt as if my chest caved in and I had to make sure my heart didn't jump out of my mouth. The explosion is their way of saying its ten minutes to game time - everyone get to your seats. They don't allow beer inside the stadium itself, so I had to down my Bud Light quickly. I saw other fans didn't want to depart with their beers, so they just stood outside and drank (and several just stayed out there all game to drink).

             All the army cadets were confided to their section which was a sea of white hats and white shirts, with the army marching band nearby. The Ball State fans were stationed behind one of the end zones and stuck out with their redness. Our seats we along the side view of the field near the end zone that the Ball State fans were seated. With tickets for NFL games about the same price as buying a new BMW, for the price of a college game its a great opportunity to get close to the field without having to take out a third mortgage. Overall the stadium was quite empty, and with Army posting a 1-6 record in that point of the season, I could understand why. The cadets and marching band members were standing all game long, other "citizens" were allowed to sit down. Ball State jumped out to an early 14-0 lead and scored two touchdowns on their first two drives of the game. It looked like it was going to be a blowout, but Army did score a touchdown of their own in the first quarter and went into half-time trailing by a manageable 17-10 score. After an Army touchdown, the canon in the stadium as well as that friendly monster canon across the pond, each fire a shot to celebrate the score. The main problem the Black Knights was that they couldn't throw the football at all. It was a real throw-back to football in the 1930's and 40's. All they would do is one hand-off after another, after another. There was about one or two passing attempts only in the first half. For a while I was expecting Ronald Reagan to jump onto the field with a leather helmet on. Also quite bizarre, the Army offense would get set to hike the ball, only to kneel down and look towards the sideline for the coach to call a play via two large signs that they would flash up, which would allow for everyone, including the opposing team, to see what play they were calling and pick up on their patterns. I just hope the United States Army isn't tipping their hand like that on real battlefields.

             After a silly halftime show we didn't pay any attention to was over, the monster canon went off again to tell everyone to get ready for the start of the third quarter. It seemed that most of the action was already passed as both teams only put up three points in the third quarter and went into the final one with a 20-13 Ball State lead. Watching a string of ugly football being played and Army's tiresome hand-off only offense, we started to make way to the car so we wouldn't have the long journey behind a crowd. Army was down 27-13, but as we were leaving the stadium we heard the canon fire and the crowd (what was left of them) cheer. Turns out Army scored a touchdown to bring the score closer to 27-20 and were only another touchdown away from tying the score. Still, it wasn't enticing enough for us to turn back so we continued onto the car. The only small victory this time was that in walking back we would be heading downhill instead of going upwards. As soon as we got into the car we turned on the radio we heard Army was marching down the field and was prime to tie the score. One of their rare passing attempts of the game was almost caught for a game-tying touchdown, but the Army player couldn't handle it and that was about as close as it got for the Black Knights.

             With that drive gone, Ball State got the ball and went down towards their end zone, settling for a field goal to increase their lead 30-20. Although Army added two points on a safety, they ultimately went down by a score of 30-22 to drop to a 1-7 record. Meanwhile, we were in the car stuck in a lane that wasn't moving at all!! There were a line of cars and buses in front of us and we couldn't figure out what the hold up was. A military police jeep approached us from the opposite lane and my uncle asked them what the problem was. The man in the jeep reported that a six-year old girl had gone missing, so as a result the put the entire base on lock down, with nobody getting out until she was located. I can understand the reasoning, but it was quite torturous standing there for the forty minutes. I made the best of it by exiting the car and taking advantage of the Hudson River which was in full view from the road we were on. Soon enough, I saw vehicles turning their lights on and moving forward ever so slowly. I hopped back into the car and finally we were able to leave the base. I would guess that meant the girl had been found, but we didn't hear any confirmation on that as we left.

              I was just happy I didn't have to spend a night in the brig...