Sunday 8 September 2013

of pots and kettles

A funny thing happened the other day....

First of all, I must provide you with some background information.  I need to paint the scene, so to speak.  But I'm gonna paint with words instead of paint 'cause...  well...  firstly, I don't have any paint and secondly, even if I did, I just washed my paws.

We have these neighbours and they make a lot of noise and that, my friends, is the understatement of the century.  They really make a lot of noise.  For the first half of the summer, they were making noise with table saws and chain saws and who knows what other kind of saws.  They were doin' something with wood and saws although I have no idea what.  It kind of looked like they were cutting up firewood or something but as far as I know, they don't have a fireplace or even a wood stove.  Their house doesn't have a chimney for a wood-burning stove but maybe they have something else.

But our problem was not with the wood.  It was with the noise.  The noise was unbearable.  My peeps wouldn't even go out in the backyard when it was going on and it was going on a lot.  Every single day for several weeks.  The peeps couldn't go out on the deck, peep #1 stopped workin' in the garden 'cause the noise was hurtin' her ears and neither peep could hear the television in the family room if the windows were open.  And since it was summer and hot, they wanted to open the windows.

My peeps were mad.  They were madder than a mad hatter.  They were madder than the maddest mad hatter the world had ever seen.  It was not lookin' good.

And when these neighbours were not makin' noise with the saws, they were makin' noise with their voices.  They were talkin' but their talkin' voices had a way of carrying.  I don't think they were actually yelling.  Their voices just carried, extremely well.  I'll give 'em an A plus on that front.  They seem to be extremely skilled at makin' their voices carry. 

And let me tell you, they have quite the vocabulary.  There was this one particular word that they used a lot.  I won't publish it here 'cause it's not fit for mixed company...  and by mixed company I mean cats as well as peeps.  Anywho...  one day I heard one of them using this particular word as a noun, verb, adjective and adverb all in the same sentence and to be perfectly honest, it sounded like it came quite naturally.  No effort at all.  Apparently, they know how to use this naughty word, very well.

My peeps were furious about the noise but they were pretty upset with the language, too.

Then one day, ol' peepers decided enough was enough.  She spotted a woman whom she believed to be the mother of one of the men livin' in the house and she realised the opportunity she had at paw.  Ol' peepers flung open a family room window and had a somewhat one-sided conversation with herself.  She faced the open window and used her I'm on stage and will project voice.  When the peep uses that voice, it carries very well, too.

"We're not going to put up with this anymore," she said.  "If it doesn't stop, I'm calling the police and then I'll be calling the county to lodge a complaint.  We have the right to enjoy our own property..."  She went on and on and on.  She mentioned the constant and unbearable loud noise from the wood stuff that was hurtin' her ears and she talked about the use of the word to which I alluded, earlier.  Once she had said what needed to be said, she closed the window.

Well, the next week, the saws started up again on Monday evening but for only half an hour and they were never heard from, again.

Does my peep have the magic touch or what?

Okay...  that's my painted backdrop.  Now here's the funny part.

The other day, ol' peepers was checkin' on her plumeria babies on the deck.  I was right there, beside her, making sure she did it right.  Off in the distance, we could hear someone playing the bagpipes.  We don't know who plays the bagpipes but someone in our subdivision does 'cause we hear it quite often.  It's never that loud though.  Peep #1 doesn't even like the bagpipes and the sound doesn't bother her at all.  It's just not that loud.

Anywho...  one of the neighbours pulled into his driveway and I guess he heard the bagpipes, too, 'cause then we heard him yell,  "Shut up!  Blankety-blank!  No one wants to listen to the blankety-blank bagpipes!"

Okay...  the blankety-blank parts I wrote, myself.  They weren't part of the original quote but I couldn't publish the words used in the original quote.  Nerissa's Life is a family-friendly blog, you see.

Anywho...  all I know is that if there was anyone in the world who did not have a right to complain about some bagpipes bein' played off in the distance, it was that man, the other day.  I mean, talk about pots and kettles!  Does he not realize that no one wanted to hear his wood-workin' work which was much, much louder, day after day after day after day after day after...  You get my point, I am sure.

39 comments:

  1. Oh Nerissa you Actually put a smile on Ragdoll mommy's face! Because today we are all having a sorta bad day,if you ask me! (Nico)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. To answer you: No those footballs were not filled with nip lol;)

      Delete
  2. Could you ask your Dad to learn how to play the bagpipes - that is a grim sound!
    Luv Hannah and Lucy xx xx

    ReplyDelete
  3. Holy CAT you have a FURRY interesting neighborhood. Ours is terribly BORING by comparison. Nothing juicy ever happens HERE!

    ReplyDelete
  4. And, of course, for a cat with such super acute hearing, the extra noise made by saws and stuff must have been unbearable!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Your Mummy has a lot of patience had it been my mummy she would have said something after a few days...hehehe...my mummy doesn't put up with much of any kind of noise or naughty behaviour,she always say's I don't behave in that way so why should I put up with it from others and she can be quite vocal too!xx Speedy

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sounds like you have some interesting neighbors. We prefer the bagpipe person.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh my that sounds like a very colorful language being used next door! We are glad to hear it stopped and we kinda think it's funny that they didn't like the bagpipes!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Aren't there by-laws for this kind of noise pollution? It's so annoying. I love bagpipes!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You'd think, huh? The noise by-laws apply only at night... 11pm-7am. However, interference with the enjoyment of another person's property is a different by-law. That one applies.

      Delete
    2. No those footballs were not filled with nip lol.Take care

      Delete
  9. Oh what a silly man to judge others without realizing he is louder! Maybe someone should yell those words at him when he is being loud! Lee and Phod

    ReplyDelete
  10. Your mom does have a magic touch! Bagpipes are so pretty. I hope you get to hear them more. Me-Ommmmm

    ReplyDelete
  11. Yikes. Mommy gets mad at the people next door who smoke like chimneys and stink up the Catio. Good on your peep telling the $%@#!&! neighbors off.

    ReplyDelete
  12. That's blankety blank funny!!
    The REAL Maple Syrup Mob xxxxx
    Pee Ess Don't tell anyone we said that,we are not allowed to use rude words.
    Pee Pee Ess. Mummy and Daddy used to live in Scotland...they call bagpipes 'Agonybags'.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Can you come to my house and work your magic with my loud neighbor? Music at all hours. LOL. Glad it got quiet.
    Sue B

    ReplyDelete
  14. Nissy, your mom is one brave lady. Our mom says that she would have been afraid your blankety-blank neighbor would have come to the house to do something mean. Our neighbors talk very loud. They do not have inside voices even when they are inside, but they never use bad words. They only bother us if they are in their side yard next to our side yard. People are able to block out their own noise-making, but when it came to the bagpipes, your neighbor couldn't block that. We must say that you live in a most unusual neighborhood. Purrs and hugs, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo

    ReplyDelete
  15. Wow, if that noise, both machine and human, was bothering your human, Nerissa, I can only imagine what it was doing to sensitive kitty ears! It does not sound like they are terribly bright, either.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Dang, I think my neighbors must be related to your neighbors! Oh, our neighbors are nuts too.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Aw, Nissy, there's nothing more frustrating that noisy neighbors. 'Cept maybe noisy ones that complain about others' noise. Sheesh.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Ugh! This reminds our mom of some next door neighbors who played music so loud the windows and doors shook up and down the street. She pinged their cars with a slingshot to set off their car alarms. It was the only thing that kept them quiet.

    We posted about the award you gave us today.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Maybe the bagpipe made their wood and/or voice sounds less loud ;-)
    Purrs

    ReplyDelete
  20. Noisy neighbours are the worst. We had years of it and the police were forever going over to have words. They left a few months back and left the place in a right state so we then had builders next door making a racket all Summer. Luckily all is quiet now. So we feel your pain and we hope all is quiet now. Have a marvellous Monday.
    Best wishes Molly

    ReplyDelete
  21. Ohhhhh. Your Peep is just way COOL! We're glad we don't have such noisy neighbors. OH. Wait. We do have one neighbor who likes to SING LOUDLY...every night.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Well Nissy good for your peep letting the neighbors know what she thought of all that racket. We totally "GET" that as we had quite a time with our neighbors until we told them they were driving us nuts. Funny your neighbors THEN didn't like hearing the distant bagpipes - just goes to show that people have different levels of tolerance I suppose. Humans are a strange lot but I DO know that I didn't like all the racket our neighbors' dogs made day in and day out so I guess it's not just humans effected by noise - it's us purrfectly quiet all the time cats as well!!!!

    Kitty Hugs, Sammy

    ReplyDelete
  23. I am sooo glad I wasn't here for the remodel. Apparently you could hear saws and hammers and such for MONTHS. Now in our building it is smells more than noise. Lots of people from all over the world live here, and I spend part of my precious days by the bottom of the front door, sniffing exotic cooking smells! Yumm. Well, until the nasty neighbors who can't stand those smells go up and down the hall spraying nasty de-smellers. Cough! Then Mommy puts something by the bottom of our door to block those nasty chemical sprays! Some people, eh? Have to ruin nice smelling stuff!
    MEOW!
    QUINN

    ReplyDelete
  24. Boy, oh boy, Nissy, you painted that picture well. And some of us really know paint!! We're with your peeps eleventy billion percent on the noise thing. Our renter neighbors bought their teenager a drum set three years ago and IT IS LOUD! The worse part might be that the kid isn't getting any better, or maybe the worse part is the rental company says we have to put up with it! Now for the good news... a new for rent sign went up over the weekend! They're moving out! We're happy but our mom is grumpy because she believes someone worse will move in. Silly mom, stop being grumpy! Purrs...

    ReplyDelete
  25. YEA for Peep #1!!! you go!! maybe Peep#1 could do some late evening caterwauling practice...standing out in the yard...heh...heh

    ReplyDelete
  26. We live in the middle of a city but we live in an apartment building built in 1907 (when buildings were more, uh SOLID than they are these days) and amazingly we have been real lucky with our neighbors, although the lady upstairs's new baby is due tomorrow, MOL! It's okay though--we figure one little baby can't be as loud as the guy a few years back who was learning to play the trumpet. We figure if you live in the middle of a big very crowded city, you gets used to the noise. Plus my Human spends her days around hundreds of teenagers so almost anything seems quiet after that! (My Human has a shockingly dirty mouth for an old lady. Shocking! But she doesn't shout her HBO words out the windows for everyone to hear. Usually.

    ReplyDelete
  27. There is nothing worse than noisy neighbors. We had terrible neighbors in Italy and it was the worst time. So frustrating!

    ReplyDelete
  28. Oooh, noisy neighbors... We have that too. Our noisy neighbors usually starts getting loud at 12 midnight onwards. All the laughing makes mom really mad because she couldn't sleep. Mom would call the guard downstairs to report these noisy neighbors. The guard would knock on their door to give them a warning. Well, seems like they didn't care. The noise went on and mom would call the guard again. Ha! After that, there was silence. Aparently, the guard went to the electric room and cut the noisy neighbor's power. Ha!

    ReplyDelete
  29. Hi! I wanted to let you know that I nominated your blog for the Versatile Blogger award. There’s more information about it on today’s first post of my blog. Congrats!

    ReplyDelete
  30. Ohh!! Wes HATES noisy neighbors! Wes has had them and now, Wes is so lucky that wes now lives in the middle of nowhere, in a teenie, tiny village (like ours) Yous just can't does that!
    Kisses
    Nellie

    ReplyDelete
  31. You made mum smile, Nissy! Thanks, pal xox

    ReplyDelete
  32. We hate disturbing neighbors, Nerissa, so we know just how you felt. Next time telepaw me and your other furriends, we can make a very loud cat-lamentation (don't know the right word)at night, to teach them! Pawkisses for a Silent Sunday :)

    ReplyDelete

I love hearin' from my pals. I really, REALLY do. PURRS.