being neighborly

[JRinPA]

As a kid, I seem to think that if we were going to have something worked on, my parents would absolutely have advised the neighbors of what to expect. Ahead of time. And/or asked access permission. That does not seem to happen at all anymore. And when I say I seem to think, that is polite for I know dang well.

This morning at 6am (7am for DST types) it quickly turned into loud voices, hammering, banging, thumping, lots of yelling en espanol. Turns out a cross street neighbor is having their roof redone. I think that is at least an hour before regs allow, certainly before common courtesy. And totally out of the blue. A very loud day to work here. Plus what sounds like mariachi music seeping through the closed house windows. I can't fault the roofers for that - just that I prefer to hear the doves and cardinals.

Had I known this ahead of time, I would have planned a different day. I'm sure the neighbor did.

Earlier this year it was gas line work. No warning from gas company, no note on doors.

Last fall it was gas line install work between the houses, 10 feet from the bedroom window early one morning. Neighbors did not let me know. Those guys at least stayed mostly on the neighbors property, since they had the maps.

Trees being cut down - surprise, we didn't see the need to mention we are having a crew come in with a heavy lift crane and they are halfway on your property, weight right over your sewer pipe. And they will chainsawing tall trees that overhang your property and shed, so, maybe not a good day to work in your own backyard or put the dogs out.

I'm not talking an electrician or oil burner guy in house. I'm talking construction/destruction crews, lots of noise, plus crossing property lines. I definitely feel like society is in decline when it comes to being...correct? Polite? Courteous?

[worth1]

No doubt.

As far as the Mexican music playing loud at a job site or party in the neighborhood welcome to Texas.
They seem to think everyone enjoys that garbage.

[JRinPA]

It sounds like the same singer, must be an album. It is not terrible. Just off, for here. No one here plays loud music, very rarely, but I understand it compared to listening to generator and nail guns. My dad put the last roof on this house himself, he was lineman for years so was fine with heights. He didn't use a nail gun, that's for sure. Later a contractor was here for something and asked him who did the roof, because it was good as he had ever seen. Fifty year shingles, I hope they keep working.

That neighbor works for the school district, probably tells all the students they have to go to college to get a decent job. Probably believes that, since they will only pay bottom dollar for their own work done.

So now it is raining hard and they are continuing to shingle over the now soaked underlayment. Guy just walked up 2 story ladder with a 10 pack of shingles over one shoulder. Only one hand on the ladder. Three points of contact? LOL. In the pouring rain. Music still going though.

One of the trucks has Land of Enchantment plates.

At least the foreman is wearing a blaze orange baseball cap so they can see him easily.

[karstopography]

No doubt.

As far as the Mexican music playing loud at a job site or party in the neighborhood welcome to Texas.
They seem to think everyone enjoys that garbage.

I’d take Norteño music over almost all of the rap or even a lot of recent country music. I believe a lot of the music on the work crews is norteño or from the northern part of Mexico, that’s how it was explained to me by a norteño friend with roots in northern Mexico.

I like some older country music, but most of it on the radio these days is just awful. But, a music critic I’m not.

[JRinPA]

I haven't heard any radio chatter like it was actual over the air. I haven't done mp3 since napster...or satelite or anything. I definitely heard close to mariachi music this morning though. Almost seemed like a challenge, like rooster. We're here!

Some it sounded like rap or hip hop. The lead voice sounds the same to me for all of them. Could be the same 5 or 6 songs looping, for all I know. It don't mean nothing to me, just sort of noise.

[worth1]

Wait til you get hammered with tuba music all day long.

@karstopography
I can't stand the modern country music today either.
Not a huge fan of country anyway but then they have country rap or hip hop of which is horrible.

[JRinPA]

Country hip hop, is that like square dancing? Or would that be hip hop stomp.

I'm not sure what modern country music sound like. I do miss late 90s pop country, those girls were hot and had great voices. Shania and that music video era.

[JRinPA]

I went over and scored some "open box, have to dispose of" shingles. Plus some big cutoffs. I use them for the path between my raised boxes, really keeps weeds down. There are marked Miami-Dade approved? Pretty thin shingles, I think, they'll be back in 15 years to do it again.

Which actually reminds me, the neighbor did say something, months ago, about getting the roof re-done this year. And mentioned about getting a better grade of shingle this time. The last ones tore up off part off the roof a few years ago and needed spot fixing.

Nothing recent with a hard date though.
So I guess I'm just grouchy.

[karstopography]

The original roof my parents had put on their house in the 1970’s was a “30 year” roofing shingle made by GAF. Turns out it was more like a 8-10 year roof at 29° north latitude. There was a large class action lawsuit and settlement and my folks got, as I remember things, basically a new roof gratis. GAF hadn’t done their homework or used something in the shingle that basically dissolved in short order in the intense UV light like what happens in these latitudes. I do remember looking at those shingles disintegrating before our very eyes.

[worth1]

Country hip hop, is that like square dancing? Or would that be hip hop stomp.

I'm not sure what modern country music sound like. I do miss late 90s pop country, those girls were hot and had great voices. Shania and that music video era.

It's literally a cross between twangy arsed country music and rap.
It's frigging horrible.
Between it and the Mexican music I'll take the Mexican music.
Heavy metal and hard rock have such a wide range of music I can't say I like anything close to all of it.
I used to listen to what they called outlaw country.
One of my favorites.

[bower]

Around our way, it's become so difficult to get anyone to do anything, the homeowner generally has zero warning that the necessary repair is about to happen. So I wouldn't be too quick to blame neighbor courtesy, which may just be they had no lead time as to the project going ahead, and when the man says "it's today" well you just swallow it!! Better now than never scenario.

[slugworth]

Oompa Loompas were cutting down the neighbors hedges to put up a fence.
I had to rush out to stop them from cutting mine down also.

[Tormahto]

The way I look at it, would you rather live in the Ukraine?

A bit of noise for a day or two, is nothing, to me. It looks like one time projects that won't be done again for at least a decade, or more.

The only problem that I would have is loud music every day, or on many, many weekends. Where I live it's very quiet, with maybe an outdoor house party in the neighborhood once a month for June, July and August.

And then there are fireworks. In the nearby big city, they go off, from about midnight to 3 in the morning, almost every night from the start of June until the 4th of July. I hope it doesn't happen here.

[JRinPA]

It was much quieter this morning, listening to some catbirds spread around meowing.

No, my ancestors got out of Lithuania at least 50 years before the reds, out of Greece after the Great War, out of overpopulated potato Ireland, class stratified Britain, and long ago out of war torn Europe to come to a better place. So Ukraine, no, would have been nice when Ayla was there, but not now.

Still, I'd rather the development across the street was still corn fields. And I want to see the greedy developers burn for what they did.

There is a map on one door from 2nd grade probably... mom kept a lot of kid art up, from all three of us. We (class project) were supposed to make a map from house to school. We had the last elementary school bus stop, didn't pick up until..8:25?, so my map was only a mile and I included every building between the house and the school. Very few rectangle/triangles stacks required. Somewhat out of scale, laid out with ruler and from a boy's vantage point - no google earth back then. The only thing directly between the house and school was corn beans and wheat. I wrote Corn Fields. That map is burned into my mind, I guess, because I will dream that wrong shape, know it is wrong, so I must be dreaming. Heck I knew it was wrong on the bus ride in, that morning. The corn didn't run all the way to the road, there was an old field there, about 50 yards of buffer. I drew an extra line in pencil but didn't know what to write. I didn't know the word "fallow" at that age. I felt like I failed, but I guess it won for best map. When the chance came for someone to make a profit, that fallow field paved over just the same as the rest of it. They backed houses right up into that corner where it was fallow, might have been later on, but thankfully, they were not allowed a right of way there, so to access them you have to drive all the way around and into the internal cul-de-sac.

And that cross street neighbor does live in one of the three original houses in that development. We watched the field starting to be destroyed at the high school bus stop, jr high/high school was the first stop instead of last, 655 am. So very dark in winter and then again in spring when the clocks changed. There was hammering one morning, they threw up a frame really quick. We watched some Amish guy 30 feet up nailing in the main roof beam, in the dark half light, on icy mornings. Yelling, why don't you build that somewhere else. He ignored us. Go build that back in Lancaster County! Then the money flopped and until another developer took over, those half finished pieces of junk rotted for a year or two, then development started at another corner of the field... (the third roof, not really a surprise I guess).

It was all ruined by the time I was out of college. And my dad had put the current roof on this house during that time, by himself practically.

And yes, the development people do lots of fireworks, way more than in town. As a kid in town, I remember ground shows, but no one was stupid enough to launch rockets into the air. (Rockets were and are illegal to launch with a certain distance of building, 50 yards. But greedy Gov. Wolf wanted more $$$ so he made it very easy to buy them in PA paying PA taxes, rather than crossing state lines. But no way to increase enforcement of safety laws. So, so many get shot off now, not having the hassle to sneak them in state) There were plenty of 4th of July shows back then with real rockets. But the development people launch countless flames into the air, all summer. Will start in two weekends, probably. They burned one house halfway down. Volunteer fireman's house. His kid was launching fireworks and landed some on the roof, very dry year. Or it might have been right out the second story window, maybe they shot into his room. Regardless, 1130 pm or so the sirens go. Three alarm. Upper story burned, roof burned. The firemen were all there working out their story until 5 am. A week later the newspaper reported it was an air conditioner that caught fire in the teenage boys room. And that he had been sleeping when it started. Guy fixed it and sold that house real quick...

[bower]

There is no dirtier business than real estate.
Will go to any lengths to acquire the land they want, and as for zoning, they pull all the strings.
Just look at the housing crisis and crazy valuation of homes, if you want to know how much blood money is worth.

[worth1]

You can't possibly imagine how much land is being swallowed up around where I live.
I can't even remember what some places looked like.
I went down a road I used to travel on some time ago and the countryside is completely gone.

[bower]

You can't possibly imagine how much land is being swallowed up around where I live.
I can't even remember what some places looked like.
I went down a road I used to travel on some time ago and the countryside is completely gone.

When I moved here 30 years ago, it was a 2 acre lot size minimum. That didn't last long!
They decided to bring in water and sewer services, in spite of high cost to residents and a lively debate.
Now almost all the area between my home and the main road (and river) including the steep hillside is high density residential, a complete switch to urban. So much land has been developed in the area it has become the highest density of population in our sprawling town (two towns amalgamated).
There's another piece of the subdivision going in again probably starting this summer, so I'm girding for a rat year.

[worth1]

Well I come home today and the neighbors across the street are doing the roof.
Loud Mexican music and all.

[Tormahto]

You can't possibly imagine how much land is being swallowed up around where I live.
I can't even remember what some places looked like.
I went down a road I used to travel on some time ago and the countryside is completely gone.

When I moved here 30 years ago, it was a 2 acre lot size minimum. That didn't last long!
They decided to bring in water and sewer services, in spite of high cost to residents and a lively debate.
Now almost all the area between my home and the main road (and river) including the steep hillside is high density residential, a complete switch to urban. So much land has been developed in the area it has become the highest density of population in our sprawling town (two towns amalgamated).
There's another piece of the subdivision going in again probably starting this summer, so I'm girding for a rat year.

On the bright side, if you get enough development, the Rolling Stones just might finally book your place on a tour.

[worth1]

You can't possibly imagine how much land is being swallowed up around where I live.
I can't even remember what some places looked like.
I went down a road I used to travel on some time ago and the countryside is completely gone.

When I moved here 30 years ago, it was a 2 acre lot size minimum. That didn't last long!
They decided to bring in water and sewer services, in spite of high cost to residents and a lively debate.
Now almost all the area between my home and the main road (and river) including the steep hillside is high density residential, a complete switch to urban. So much land has been developed in the area it has become the highest density of population in our sprawling town (two towns amalgamated).
There's another piece of the subdivision going in again probably starting this summer, so I'm girding for a rat year.

On the bright side, if you get enough development, the Rolling Stones just might finally book your place on a tour.

Actually they have been here.
My wife bought tickets for a concert in Austin and I didn't want to go because it was outside and the walk was horrible at zilker Park.
So she went with another girl.
She got back and said it was horrible.
Next I'm not a Rolling Stones fan.
I like some songs but not many.
Last concert for me was David Bowie.
Best concert ever.
It's like the guy did all his music from the beginning to almost the end of his life.
What a class act.