# My neighbor called the police on me for noise pollution



## erikmannie

I have a whiny neighbor directly across the street in the residential neighborhood that I live in which happens to be single family homes.

Today I was working on the lathe and playing some country music. The music wasn’t even very loud, and I don’t think parting steel makes too much noise.

I stopped the work to take my son to work and drop off my timecard, and when I got back my wife told me that the police had showed up because he called in about the noise.

Obviously, it would’ve been very quiet when the police officer got here. The complaint was called in about 4 PM.

My neighbor complains about a lot of other people in the neighborhood. He is a retired mailman. If he has any hobbies, I have not seen evidence of that.

I am leaving home for two months, so this won’t be a problem until I get back. I will still be working in the shop on the weekends, but I guess I can wear headphones.

He has also complained to me twice about the light from behind my welding curtain. I guess a welding curtain isn’t good enough.

I honestly just think he is bored and his hobby might be complaining.

I would be inclined to confront him and tell him to chill out, but my wife doesn’t want me to say anything to him because she runs a daycare out of our house so she has an additional interest in keeping the peace.

Have any of you guys experienced this? I leave the garage door open for light and ventilation.

I called the police station, and they said not to worry about it. There was no follow up to be done.

I have lived in this city all my life, and all the neighborhoods that I have lived in always had people working outside, in the garage, music playing, kids playing outside, etc. I honestly don’t see this guy’s side of the story.

I think that the way that this will end up is it if he calls the cops again and I am doing what I do in the garage, then the police will end up telling him that I’m not doing anything wrong.

What I do in my garage is not a business. People ask me to do work for them, and I tell them that I don’t have time because that is true.

I just don’t get it. The only thing that makes sense is that he is a whiner.


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## Cadillac

I'd say look into black smithing and buy a power hammer .


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## erikmannie

Cadillac said:


> I'd say look into black smithing and buy a power hammer .



The neighbor fella is clearly imbalanced. He seems like the first guy that would go postal.

I will have a 16X60 gearhead lathe here in about 18 months. I think that is going to be noisier than my belt driven 10X30, and the only place that I have room for it is front and center in the garage. Maybe I should set the new lathe back 6 inches or so in case I need to put up soundproofing if this issue continues.


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## darkzero

Maybe he didn't like your music!   

I will never understand some people. As you said, they got nothing better to do. Cops probably won't even do anything unless there really is a problem. They just have to respond because of the calll. If that neighbor keeps making calls for invalid reasons then he's the one that they will be talking to.


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## f350ca

I feel for you. I live in a rural area but the neighbours house is only a few hundred feet away, I've had a great neighbour for the last 15 or so years, the house sold and I was dreading what might be moving in. Turns out I lucked out again. He's a mechanic and works at apparently the most northern mine in the world. Two weeks in and two weeks out. He's probably 20 years younger but we hit it off. Been out atv'ing, ice fishing, setting minnow traps, having a great time. Good to have some young blood to carry the load. lol

Greg


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## darkzero

erikmannie said:


> I will have a 16X60 gearhead lathe here in about 18 months. I think that is going to be noisier than my belt driven 10X30, and the only place that I have room for it is front and center in the garage. Maybe I should set the new lathe back 6 inches or so in case I need to put up soundproofing if this issue continues.



I can't imagine that lathe to be that loud. I have a gearhead lathe & a gearhead mill & they are not loud enough to hear from the street let alone across the street with the garage door half way open. They are not big machines though. My air compressor is much more louder & it sits right behind tbe garage door. With the garage door closed I can only barely hear it if standing in my driveway & my neighborhood is pretty quite. I do have an insulated garage & garage door but still.


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## Nutfarmer

The problem is you live in California.  The town of Davis the police actually cited a woman for to much noise for snoring. In Sacramento it's is illegal to work on your car . Where i live  the bums  and druggies living on the river have piles of garbage and the city won't do anything ,but let even a small amount of water run off your lawn and they will fine you. I love California  ,just not the government.


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## erikmannie

darkzero said:


> I can't imagine that lathe be that loud. I have a gearhead lathe & a gearhead mill & they are not loud enough to hear from the street let alone across the street with the garage door half way open. They are not big machines though. My air compressor is much more louder & it sits right behind tbe garage door. With the garage door closed I can only barely hear it if standing in my driveway & my neighborhood is pretty quite. I do have an insulated garage & garage door but still.



My garage is also insulated, but I’m afraid that my garage may be acting like a big speaker with the garage door open. I am no acoustic engineer, but I imagine the sound waves emanating from my two car garage headed straight across the street.


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## erikmannie

Nutfarmer said:


> The problem is you live in California.  The town of Davis the police actually cited a woman for to much noise for snoring. In Sacramento it's is illegal to work on your car . Where i live  the bums  and druggies living on the river have piles of garbage and the city won't do anything ,but let even a small amount of water run off your lawn and they will fine you. I love California  ,just not the government.



This neighbor has a creek behind his house with a bike/walking path on either side of the creek. This particular bike path does not have a problem with homeless people, however.

I am 53 years old, and this is the first time in my life that I have had a problem with a complaining neighbor. The only way that I can think to solve it is to appease him.

One time my teenage son had a friend come over, and my son’s friend made the mistake of parking in front of my neighbor’s house. My neighbor knocked on our door, and told him that if he didn’t move his car that he was going to call the police. My son’s friend said “whatever” and moved his car. This is the type of person that I am dealing with. The car had only been parked there for about 10 minutes. I think the guy is bored and looking for problems. That would’ve been a really good time to not move the car and let him call the cops, and the cops would have said to him “Why the heck are you calling us out for this?!”


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## darkzero

erikmannie said:


> My garage is also insulated, but I’m afraid that my garage may be acting like a big speaker with the garage door open. I am no acoustic engineer, but I imagine the sound waves emanating from my two car garage headed straight across the street.



The reason I know what I posted about the noises coming out of my garage is cause I was really curious. Try turning your stuff on & walk over to the neighbors house & hear for yourself. That way you know if the guy is crazy or not. I vote that he is!


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## Ulma Doctor

if you are below 70Db,(about the same Db a a bus idling) tell your a-hole neighbor to mind his own business and continue to do what you always do.
if the police show up, which they probably will, explain your side of the story to the officers.


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## Ulma Doctor

erikmannie said:


> This neighbor has a creek behind his house with a bike/walking path on either side of the creek. This particular bike path does not have a problem with homeless people, however.
> 
> I am 53 years old, and this is the first time in my life that I have had a problem with a complaining neighbor. The only way that I can think to solve it is to appease him.


never try to make a crybaby happy, you will chase his approval as long as he lives


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## darkzero

Ulma Doctor said:


> if you are *below 70Db*,(about the same Db a a bus idling) tell your a-hole neighbor to mind his own business and continue to do what you always do.
> if the police show up, which they probably will, explain your side of the story to the officers.



Good point. Lawnmowers are probably louder than the machine noise coming out the garage. And they always have to mow the lawn at 7am when I'm still sleeping!

Heck I've heard husbands getting yelled at by their wives inside the house that are louder than the noises coming out of my garage.


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## erikmannie

I will do this tomorrow, but I will only stand on the sidewalk in front of his house. I wish I had a decibel meter.


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## Ulma Doctor

here is the Santa Rosa Noise Ordinance:



			https://srcity.org/DocumentCenter/View/3568/Farmers-Lane-311-Noise-PDF


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## benmychree

Nutfarmer said:


> The problem is you live in California.  The town of Davis the police actually cited a woman for to much noise for snoring. In Sacramento it's is illegal to work on your car . Where i live  the bums  and druggies living on the river have piles of garbage and the city won't do anything ,but let even a small amount of water run off your lawn and they will fine you. I love California  ,just not the government.


You just live in the wrong town.


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## darkzero

erikmannie said:


> I will do this tomorrow, but I will only stand on the sidewalk in front of his house. I wish I had a decibel meter.



I think they have db apps for smart phones. Probably not that accurate but should be good enough.


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## erikmannie

Ulma Doctor said:


> never try to make a crybaby happy, you will chase his approval as long as he lives



That’s funny that you would say crybaby, because my wife and I call him Baby Chris because he is such a baby.

I am becoming more and more convinced that a police officer is going to set him straight and tell him that they have more pressing concerns to spend the time on.


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## Ulma Doctor

erikmannie said:


> That’s funny that you would say crybaby, because my wife and I call him Baby Chris because he is such a baby.
> 
> I am becoming more and more convinced that a police officer is going to set him straight and tell him that they have more pressing concerns to spend the time on.


that's exactly what will happen if he starts calling too much.


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## erikmannie

For the next few days, I’ll be working on the lathe but I will wear headphones. We’ll see if he calls the police on just the noise from the machine.


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## Ulma Doctor

if he does, you have a crybaby- then you need to confront him and tell him you ain't going anywhere


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## Shootymacshootface

Don't lose one minute of sleep over someone like that. Nothing will make him happy. I have lots of experience with this. 
We have a retired couple who's backyard abuts our backyard. They have made official complaints to the town about everyone that can be seen from their backyard or front yard. I am the favorite target though. I have 2 boats, a tractor w/ a loader bucket, always a couple stacks of summer or winter tires, a dump trailer with a small hydraulic crane attached. My wife was running a vacation camp for dogs. Holiday weekends could get kind of crazy with we'll just say several dogs here. Anyway, we were advised by the town that we could have no more than 4 dogs here at any time without having a kennel license, and we have 2 dogs of our own, so she had to cut way back on the dog watching and get a part time job. 
I always wanted chickens and she has had them in a past life (Australia), and we live in a right to farm community, with town bylaws written specifically for raising poultry. So.....now we have 18 chickens, 22 ducks, at the moment 1 rooster (we have had as many a 4 of those adorable little bastards), and I was recently told we will have a goose in a few weeks. I dug a 20' × 25' ×3 1/2' deep pond for the ducks. They tried to prevent me from doing this as well. There's more , you get the idea. I bet they miss the dogs.


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## matthewsx

Just go about your business as normal. If he really thinks it's a problem then he can call the police, when he has done so too many times they will put a stop to it. Your hobby is your own business, if you are in your garage during the day operating a lathe then it's very unlikely you are creating a nuisance, sound or otherwise. As a professional sound engineer I have dealt with noise complaints many times but never for something like what you are doing. 

Most cops hate these types of calls but they have to respond, it's their job. Next time they show up hopefully you will be there, shut down your machines and music and offer them a bottle of ice cold water. If possible offer them a seat in the shade and make sure to thank them for all they do to keep your neighborhood safe. Chances are very good they will head across the street and tell your neighbor to cool it. Don't bother to do this yourself since you don't know what might happen if he is unstable, just let his actions play out to their logical conclusion. You never know, one of the cops might even be interested in what you're doing and join us here 

John


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## DavidR8

I had a neighbor like that. I checked the bylaws and borrowed a genuine decibel meter. 
Went to the front of their driveway and checked the levels. Not even close to being above the limit. 
So I took a picture of the reading along with the date and time, my stereo volume setting and kept them for the next complaint. 
That time came, the gendarmerie showed up, I showed them the pictures, showed them the current stereo setting. We chatted about whatever I was building and they went away happy. 
I never heard from the neighbor again. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## nnam

One time, a neighbor reported on me, and my county said I parked a commercial vehicle in my own property and sent me 4 letters bringing me to court.   I was lucked out to be able to speak to the attorney that was supposed to be the one prosecuted me.  I explain all the things and he said I didn't violate rule and it is not a commercial vehicle.

After that, I called the county person  who was harrassining me asking for a letter withdraw the charge.  They said they don't do that (but sent me 4 letters getting me to court?).  They can send me an email only.  In the email, they said I have remedied the violation (seriously?).

This is just one story of many.  These days, neighbors don't cover your back, they are like enemy.  I still don't know which neighbor(s) keep calling on me.


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## Superburban

If you do think the noise is on the high side, a moving blanket hanging on a frame, like a welding blanket, will help cut down the noise heard across the street.


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## pstemari

Malicious compliance is certainly a thing. I think I'd go with bagpipe music—i think the reason the Scots were historically fearsome warriors was that retreat meant getting closer to the pipers .

Seriously, though, maybe try shooting the breeze with the guy if he's ever outside? Escalation generally just makes things worse.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk


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## Nogoingback

I used to have a neighbor like that: he initiated some sort of conflict with every neighbor that lived around him.
He finally went too far and harrassed my next door neighbor's kids, which resulted in a visit from the police.

Just ignore the guy: he'll poison his own well eventually.


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## C-Bag

Nogoingback said:


> I used to have a neighbor like that: he initiated some sort of conflict with every neighbor that lived around him.
> He finally went too far and harrassed my next door neighbor's kids, which resulted in a visit from the police.
> 
> Just ignore the guy: he'll poison his own well eventually.


Don't get me started on crazy neighbors! We live in paradise but had the most insane neighbor imaginable. I mean that, certifiable. Thing I learned with her is do not engage. She was a sonic terrorist with a music at concert levels so she could listen to it while she mowed the lawn, with a gas mower! She had a Jack Russel terrier she would let out at 1am and it would chase the local critters barking the whole time then came back to her door and bark, and bark and she wouldn't let it in. This would go on till 5am and our bedroom window is right there. My wife tried talking to her and she got worse. 

Her favorite thing after that was to blast Kid Rock at 5am for about 5min then shut down and run out and jump in her car and go to work. We painted our house and she decided to paint her house and the more she did the worse it looked. I head the noise of a airless sprayer and the smell of paint starting about 1am and it didn't stop till about 4:30am. We have a grape stake fence on her side and my trash cans are up against it. It was trash day and as I hadn't been able to sleep I went out to set out the trash and noticed this red ropy goo on my cans and realized it was the paint she was spewing going through the grape stake fence...and my truck was right there. I had just realized all this and turned to see that ropy goo all over the hood and grill of my truck when LMS (Little Miss Sunshine) walked through her gate on the way to her car. I said you got paint all over my cans and my truck! She looked at me and brightly said "I'm going to Home Depot!" and got in her car and hauleda$$. I was so stunned she was down the block before I could react. My last semi reaction was when she decided to do her usual Sunday afternoon concert series I decided my chainsaw needed to be tuned up and run, until the concert ended.

There's way more but when she finally ****** the other neighbors off she's been on the run staying elsewhere and no more escalation from her or us. She more than once called the cops and yeah the cops and Highway Patrol have her MO now and life is quiet.


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## RJSakowski

erikmannie said:


> I will do this tomorrow, but I will only stand on the sidewalk in front of his house. I wish I had a decibel meter.


There is a free app for Andriod phones thar has a decibel meter.  It'd called Physics Toolbox Suite.  Lots of other cool tools too.


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## RJSakowski

I am fortunate to have my nearest neighbors a half mile away.  We had an incident with one of them over noise once.  He was a mechanical engineering professor at UW and had an ongoing extracurricular project going with a group of students involving  souping up off road vehicles.  He set up a 1/3 mile dirt track for testing and several times during the summer, he would have the group out for eight hours of testing.  The nearest curve was 200 yds from our house and the constant noise from unmuffled engines couldn't be drowned out by the lawn mower. 

My wife called up to complain and spoke to his wife.  She told my wife that it was a University project to which my wife replied, " fine, I know the chancellor"  Five minutes later, the wife was over and five minutes after that, the professor stopped in.  His response to the noise we were hearing was that he didn't realize it carried so well.  He moved the event to his brother's farm and that was that.  

We live in a rural area and noise is a common occurrence.  Everyone heats with with wood and has a chainsaw, including me.  I have had a couple of three hour sessions this year.  We understand that.  It is part of the trade-off for living where we do.  A couple of neighbors a firearm enthusiasts.  One buys ammunition for his AK47 a thousand rounds at a time.  Another likes target shooting and some days there is a constant repetition of shots for an hour or more at a time.   In winter, there is a snowmobile runabout 200 yards from the house.  Although it is set up for public use, we are fortunate that there is little traffic and so far none at 3 AM.  Wisconsin got tough on drink sledding some years back so bar hopping on snowmobiles is way down.  Being well off the beaten track helps as well.

My biggest complaint is the weekend bike races and tours that stream past our house.  Some years ago, when it was thought that Chicago might have a shot at the Olympics, Part of the "Tour" was to have run on our road.  Cyclists from all over the midwest started running on our road.  An Illinois based company set up a for profit race running past the house. A Madison race called the "Horribly Hilly 100" makes not one but two loops past the house.  We would have races or tours every weekend. Off duty cops would be hired to police the events and they would stop regular traffic to let cyclists run, sometimes shutting a road down to all regular traffic.  One of our neighbors who farms was told that he could leave his driveway to go to his field with his tractor.  For the most part these are people from cities, towns, and suburbs.  I can only imagine the uproar that would occur if someone decided to have street drags outside their houses.  We finally managed to slow things down.  We have a couple of meetings with the county board and some ordinances were passed to regulate these events. The number of events is limited now and permits are required.  

The strangest thing though was an event I ran into (nearly literally) coming home from work one evening.  I came around a corner to see herds of people on modified skateboards with push poles to simulate cross country skiing.  There were several hundred and they were all over the road, four and five abreast and there was no way to pass them.  I had to follow them for about a mile to the next intersection where they turned off.  I'm not sure what would have happened had there been oncoming traffic.  Fortunately, it was a short-lived fad.


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## kb58

Nutfarmer said:


> The problem is you live in California.


It's good to hear that we keep it entirely within our borders and away from everyone else! Me thinks that this is more about human nature and living close together, but what do I know.


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## finsruskw

Wow!
I guess living in a small rural Iowa town ain't so bad after all!
Now, if they'd just do something about the drag strip 1/2 mile south of me......
Talk about noise!!!
Wind is out of the south, I may as well be sitting in the stands instead of my living room.


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## C-Bag

I love that our little town is unincorporated so I can do my mail order/online biz here with no problem. Almost all my neighbors do DIY projects and a couple are retired and do woodwork. I'm the only metal worker but I work strictly during the day and am conscious of my noise level. I've never had anybody complain about my noise. Probably the most noise I make is doing hammer forming or using my grinder. Most times I listen to audio books or lectures on my MP3 player with headphones but when I'm doing powdercoat I'll turn on the stereo. We are on a cul de sac and on a hill side so almost everybody is on a different level. My driveway angles down pretty steeply so I think this also helps to damp my noise output as we are nestled back and down. I don't work in the shop if I can't have the big garage door open for the fresh air and light. So everybody's situation is different. I guess I'm lucky that the people who lived here before were big DIY'ers so somebody working in this garage with the door open is not unusual.


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## gjmontll

erikmannie said:


> I will do this tomorrow, but I will only stand on the sidewalk in front of his house. I wish I had a decibel meter.


So you wish you had a sound meter. You got a smart phone? You can get a free Sound Meter app for it, I see about a dozen different ones in the Goggle Play Store and have used mine in several situations.


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## Winegrower

I suggest you keep your garage door closed and turn off the music.


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## Mini Cooper S

We live in an area where the "small" lots are 1.25 acres and we have a woods behind our house so noise hasen't been much of an issue.  About the only time we worry about it is when we break in a cam on one of our race engine ( 5 minute at high idle 3000 RPM ) or when my son takes the race car around the block to be sure everything is working properly before a race!  People around here are very understanding and I think some of them just like the sound of a British 6 cylinder race engine.


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## Cadillac

People need to mind their own business and find a hobby or something. When I moved into my neighborhood I was the youngest single person on the street. Everyone on my surrounding blocks were either widowed or 60+ and retired. I moved in had a lifted truck ,Harley, 2 stroke dirt bike and love 4th of July. 
  Remodeled the entire house from roof to foundation and built a 3car garage. My direct neighbor was a retired tradesman and enjoyed watching me with the remodel. Everyday he would pull up a lawnchair and talk my ear off and comment on what I was doing. Until one day when I laid out the foundation for my new garage. Problem was where I was putting my garage was blocking his view out his window of the street where he would sit all day and watch traffic go by. He went to the village and complained while I was getting the permits. Village said theirs nothing they could do since I was abiding by all the laws and it was my property. I actually went to the neighbor and asked what the grief was. He told me I was blocking off his view so I tried to accommodate him and said if he wanted me to move the garage back the twenty feet into my back yard to give him his view back he would have to pay for the extra 20’ of concrete driveway. I gave him the option and I would have been loosing some backyard space in the process. He said NO so I kept with my plans. Took him a week or so to get over it but he was back to hawkin me and giving advice on the build. They still don’t like when the 4th comes around but hey I clean up my mess and their glued to the window the whole time the fireworks are going. Nothing goes on on my block without the hawks watching. Great watchmen you always feal like your being watched on my street.


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## Nogoingback

RJSakowski said:


> I am fortunate to have my nearest neighbors a half mile away.  We had an incident with one of them over noise once.  He was a mechanical engineering professor at UW and had an ongoing extracurricular project going with a group of students involving  souping up off road vehicles.  He set up a 1/3 mile dirt track for testing and several times during the summer, he would have the group out for eight hours of testing.  The nearest curve was 200 yds from our house and the constant noise from unmuffled engines couldn't be drowned out by the lawn mower.
> 
> My wife called up to complain and spoke to his wife.  She told my wife that it was a University project to which my wife replied, " fine, I know the chancellor"  Five minutes later, the wife was over and five minutes after that, the professor stopped in.  His response to the noise we were hearing was that he didn't realize it carried so well.  He moved the event to his brother's farm and that was that.
> 
> We live in a rural area and noise is a common occurrence.  Everyone heats with with wood and has a chainsaw, including me.  I have had a couple of three hour sessions this year.  We understand that.  It is part of the trade-off for living where we do.  A couple of neighbors a firearm enthusiasts.  One buys ammunition for his AK47 a thousand rounds at a time.  Another likes target shooting and some days there is a constant repetition of shots for an hour or more at a time.   In winter, there is a snowmobile runabout 200 yards from the house.  Although it is set up for public use, we are fortunate that there is little traffic and so far none at 3 AM.  Wisconsin got tough on drink sledding some years back so bar hopping on snowmobiles is way down.  Being well off the beaten track helps as well.
> 
> My biggest complaint is the weekend bike races and tours that stream past our house.  Some years ago, when it was thought that Chicago might have a shot at the Olympics, Part of the "Tour" was to have run on our road.  Cyclists from all over the midwest started running on our road.  An Illinois based company set up a for profit race running past the house. A Madison race called the "Horribly Hilly 100" makes not one but two loops past the house.  We would have races or tours every weekend. Off duty cops would be hired to police the events and they would stop regular traffic to let cyclists run, sometimes shutting a road down to all regular traffic.  One of our neighbors who farms was told that he could leave his driveway to go to his field with his tractor.  For the most part these are people from cities, towns, and suburbs.  I can only imagine the uproar that would occur if someone decided to have street drags outside their houses.  We finally managed to slow things down.  We have a couple of meetings with the county board and some ordinances were passed to regulate these events. The number of events is limited now and permits are required.
> 
> The strangest thing though was an event I ran into (nearly literally) coming home from work one evening.  I came around a corner to see herds of people on modified skateboards with push poles to simulate cross country skiing.  There were several hundred and they were all over the road, four and five abreast and there was no way to pass them.  I had to follow them for about a mile to the next intersection where they turned off.  I'm not sure what would have happened had there been oncoming traffic.  Fortunately, it was a short-lived fad.




RJ, you should move to where I live, in town.   It's always quiet in my neighborhood.


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## markba633csi

Start a rock band!  Get a Stratocaster and a Marshall amp!


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## RJSakowski

Nogoingback said:


> RJ, you should move to where I live, in town.   It's always quiet in my neighborhood.


Ah, but a quiet neighborhood is only part of it.  If I want to pound iron in the forge, I can.  If I want to do some target shooting, I can.  Start up the chain saw, no problem. .

We have a good neighborhood here.  Live and let live is the motto.  We don't live in each other's pockets but if you need help or to borrow some equipment, there is always someone to help.  Kind of an old fashioned idea that somehow got lost as people became citified.


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## Nogoingback

Reminds me of a story a co-worker told me.   He lived out of town in an area where the parcels were 5-10 acres each.
One of the neighbors had a small wrecking yard at his place, though none of his neighbors cared: he was a good neighbor.
At some point, someone from town bought the property next to his and immediately started raising cain about the wrecking yard.  They discovered that his property was zoned for agriculture, not for his use, so they filed a complaint
and it was upheld.  So the wrecking yard had to go, and in it's place the owner put in a pig farm, right on the property boundry.  The new neighbor tried to complain about the smell, but couldn't do a thing about it.  All the neighbors thought it was hilarious.


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## derf

Be a good neighbor and give them some ear plugs.....


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## middle.road

Perhaps you could buy him a subscription to a couple of Hobby magazines?  
But then people like that are never happy.

I wonder if I can get the Sheriff to do something about the muscle cars, and pick 'em up trucks that are running open pipes?
Going to go install a noise app after posting this.
I'd swear they are hitting 90-100dB as they come around the corner and have to make it up a small rise.
I was out in the shop yesterday when this one smaktard in a newish 'Stang came through. I could hear him turn onto the road a quarter mile away.
He came around the corner at least 15-20mph over the 30mph limit and floored it. Actually hurt my ears.
Worse even that those chokers they put on rice burners. Or straight pipes on a cycle.
Personally I prefer a nice throaty dual exhaust noise.

Neighbors around us now are great. I use the hand grinders in the driveway and the miter saw is up on the back porch.
I fix their tractors, they mow our lawn if we're out of town.



Spoiler: Click here for my story that got rather long so I'm sticking it in a spoiler so as not to take up space.



When I first moved down here and lived in another town I had a 32' foot travel trailer, it was only two years old at the time.
Couldn't get it in the driveway because it was too steep. Street was plenty wide enough for me to park it in front of my house.
I would only bring it over from storage when I'd be loading it up for a trip. A couple of days before, a couple of days after the trip.
A couple of the neighbors kept calling the city police. They'd come out, measure if I was far enough away from the hydrant, ETC.
I had pumpkins, bottles and other junk tossed at the trailer. Smooth move lobbing bottles that broke on the pavement.
Then one of them nagged the city to do a 'safety/hazard' study, and the city engineer said it was fine.
When that didn't satisfy them they petitioned the city to pass a ordinance prohibiting parking on the streets in this sub-division.
They had this dream that they had a properly chartered HOA and owned the streets. - They didn't on both counts.
The city has numerous housing in the older parts of town left over from WWII that have no driveways at all. Only parking in on city streets.

Had a problem with a leak at one of the rear windows. Brought it to the house to do repairs.
The police got very tired of coming out. Ended up that two of them on separate occasions setup a 'speed enforcement' position - at the front end of the trailer.
There's a rather steep hill that comes down and levels off in front of the former house. Speed limit is 25mph.
They nailed several people doing 50-55mph. Unfortunately one of them was my doctor's wife. ahem.

And then came the watershed moment. I had gone into town to get something, the -ex and the kids were out in the yard and the one neighbor came over and started berating the -ex _and_ my kids. Real severe trash talking.
My son was swift enough to call me on the mobile so that I could hear, I told my son what I needed him to do and hung up and call the Police.
Told the officer on duty to roll a patrol car and to ask the shift supervisor to get over to my house ASAP, hopefully *before *I got back there.
Two patrols cars were there when I arrived, the neighbor was all up in the one officer's face yelling at him, the other officer was with my family.
Then a Lieutenant showed up. And the neighbor wasn't backing down, he demanded that these 'trailer trash' be removed from the neighborhood.
(I'm still at a loss as to his thought process...)
The Lt. and the other officer escorted him somewhat forcibly back to his house. They were headed back to our yard when the fool came back out of his house and continued his tirade at the officers. They turned around went back to him each grabbed an arm and took him back into his house.
Then a Captain showed up and went straight to his house. And another patrol car showed up. Thirty minutes later they came out and came over to my place.
By this time I'm wondering why the fool isn't cuffed and stuffed in the back of a patrol car for the language he was directing towards the officers.
They explained to me that I was to notify them immediately if said neighbor crosses the center of the street towards our property.
They had told him in no uncertain terms that if he harassed us again he would be arrested.
Aftermath was that the department increase speed traps all along the street and nailed quite a number of folks.
And the fool neighbor put his house up for sale and moved. Before doing so he attempted to get my fellow neighbors to go along with him and file a lawsuit against me - for a trailer?, parked legally? My immediate neighbor told him to get real, and that he'd support me if I wanted to file a restraining order against the complainer.
Some folks just aren't happy with their situation in life...


----------



## pontiac428

The Santa Rosa noise ordnance is very strict.  70 dB is a very low threshold.  What you have working in your favor is _distance._  You could be producing an ear-splitting 105 dB in your garage, and if this neighbor is say, 60 feet away, then at his sensitive ears the sound pressure will be a perfectly legal 69 dB.  Perceptions be damned, measurement is the only thing that counts.  Sound power decreases with distance.  To work this out, use the inverse square law (double the distance to reduce sound by 6 dB).  The loudest thing I do is grinding, which is about 90 dB at arm's reach.  At my neighbor's porch across the street at 64 feet, he's only hearing 60 dB, which means if he complains to the authorities he can go stuff himself.


----------



## Ulma Doctor

pstemari said:


> Malicious compliance is certainly a thing. I think I'd go with bagpipe music—i think the reason the Scots were historically fearsome warriors was that retreat meant getting closer to the pipers .
> 
> Seriously, though, maybe try shooting the breeze with the guy if he's ever outside? Escalation generally just makes things worse.
> 
> Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk


I’m thinking the bagpipes from AC/DC’s It’s a long way to the top (On loop) at 69 Db for a shift or 2
OR
Hank Williams Jr- Family Tradition if the neighbor doesn’t like 80’s hard rock tunes.

Even the Government Acronym’s and public radio uses Brittany Spears’ tunes to inflict irreparable psychological damage on terrorists and teenagers


----------



## Aaron_W

It looks like Santa Rosa has some rather strict noise ordinances

Santa Rosa noise

17-16.040 Standards for determining violations.
     Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, and in addition thereto, it is unlawful for any person to wilfully make or continue, or cause to be made or continued, any loud, unnecessary, or unusual noise which disturbs the peace or quiet of any neighborhood or which causes discomfort or annoyance to any reasonable person of normal sensitiveness residing in the area.
     The standards which shall be considered in determining whether a violation of the provisions of this section exists shall include, but not be limited to the following:
     (A)    The level of noise;
     (B)    The intensity of the noise;
     (C)    Whether the nature of the noise is usual or unusual;
     (D)    Whether the origin of the noise is natural or unnatural;
     (E)    The level and intensity of the background noise, if any;
     (F)     The proximity of the noise to residential sleeping facilities;       
     (G)    The nature and zoning of the area within which the noise emanates;
     (H)    The density of the inhabitation of the area within which the noise emanates;
     (I)     The time of the day or night the noise occurs;
     (J)     The duration of the noise;
     (K)    Whether the noise is recurrent, intermittent or constant;
     (L)    Whether the noise is produced by a commercial or noncommercial activity. (Prior code Ch. 27, Art. I, Div. 5)

Under special noise sources

It is unlawful for any person to operate any machinery, equipment, pump, fan, air-conditioning apparatus or similar mechanical device in any manner so as to create any noise which would cause the noise level at the property line of any property to exceed the ambient base noise level by more than five decibels. (Prior code § 27.20)


The city determines "ambient noise" in an R1/R2 residential area between 7am and 7pm as 55db, so your machinery can't be louder than 60db at the property line. Industrial is the loudest and rated at 70db.



It sounds like your neighbor is bored and wants to control the neighborhood, but tread lightly as it doesn't appear the city ordinances are in your favor.


This also makes me appreciate the two autoshops at the end of the block, any noise I make will be assumed to be coming from them. I have woken up to grinders at 7am.


----------



## kb58

Winegrower said:


> I suggest you keep your garage door closed and turn off the music.


You don't understand, we're patriotic Americans and have the freedom to do whatever we like. Besides, your point involves personal responsibility and being polite, never mind being aware of the local laws before moving in and complaining. Now, where'd I put my "loud pipes save lives" stickers?


----------



## Dabbler

I have 4 neighbours like that.  if my lawn is a half inch above the max, the neighbours all call city bylaw.  every complaint has been by the exact 4 neighbours.  I get 1 or 2 every year.  I just calmly explain this to the bylaw officer, who then tells me that complaints are confidential, and how did I know who complained, etc.. 

There are 3 officers for my area and one is on a power trip.  she always makes threats and gives me misinformation.  I've complained, but they keep her anyway.  I now tell her to give me the citation without any explanation, I can read, and leave it at that.

I love individuals, but it's 'people' I can't stand!


----------



## ericc

Cadillac said:


> I'd say look into black smithing and buy a power hammer .



Careful about this one.  There were a bunch of blacksmiths in my mom's neighborhood.  They were the nicest people.  One day some neighbors banded together and went to the police and complained.  The end result was that they could not even run a grinder.  I'm talking about a bench grinder, not an angle grinder.  The neighborhood is quiet, almost too quiet.

On my street, I am known as the blacksmith, and the neighbors immediately blame me if there is any noise.  Most of the time it is someone else, and the noisemakers are not as polite as I am.  I simply direct the neighbors to them and let them work it out.  It is so endearing to watch a couple of hissy housewives screaming at each other.  I think it is louder than an angle grinder.


----------



## middle.road

kb58 said:


> You don't understand, we're patriotic Americans and have the freedom to do whatever we like. Besides, your point involves personal responsibility and being polite, never mind being aware of the local laws before moving in and complaining. Now, where'd I put my "_loud pipes save lives_" stickers?


Bright lights work nicely and don't hurt other's ears.
With 'The Tail of the Dragon' in our backyard I've noticed a vast difference in lights the last several years.
Some you can see clearly others are rather poor in my opinion. LEDs in this case are much better during the day.
I personally like the ones with 'wobblers' on the front. 
Vehicle drivers need to pay better attention and they don't, they are in such a big hurry that they do a rolling stop and pull right out in front of traffic. 
A co-worker died on his bike when a work van pulled out in front of him - it was determined the van had blown off the stop.
Another accident I came upon where an elderly driver turned his Taurus right in front of a couple on a cruiser. They were in bad shape, luckily there were two nurses behind them when it happened and were able to provide aid.
The driver was so addled that myself and another bystander had to stop him. He was trying to start his car while muttering 'I have to get away...'.
Sickening accident.


----------



## nnam

Quiet is important for resting and sleeping.  However, quietness can also cause depression.
Lack of activities, lack of hobbies are the main source of obesity, heart disease and cancer.

I don't want to go deep here, but in some country, the noise level is crazy in city with all those motor cycle.  I know, they're 3rd world country.  But you'll be surprised that the people over there actually do "live".  They enjoy life, enjoy coffee out with friends on side of a noisy street.  I don't advocate everything about that, but there is something about it that is good.

When I first came to the US, I was a bit depressed because I didn't see people outside of their house, I didn't hear much noise.

A long time back, I was remodeling the house and I got carried away, wasn't aware of the time.  One very nice neighbor yelled out: "somebody got to sleep and work tomorrow".  I just yelled back: "I am sorry", and stopped working.


----------



## deakin

RJSakowski said:


> My biggest complaint is the weekend bike races and tours that stream past our house.  Some years ago, when it was thought that Chicago might have a shot at the Olympics, Part of the "Tour" was to have run on our road.  Cyclists from all over the midwest started running on our road.



i know where you're coming from. i don't ride my bike much because of all the noise it makes - wheezing, breathing hard...


----------



## C-Bag

The only thing I can think is overall mental health has just gotten sketchy. My disabled survivalist alt right brother decided he was going to be with his tribe and left CA in a huff for the freedom and quiet of rural PA on a turn of the last century house on 5ac. It really was like reverse Beverly Hillbilles complete with his overloaded truck blowing up and spending a week in a WallyWorld parking lot. He gets to his paradise and there is a lot of adjustment. But he doggedly will not admit any problems only talking about glad to be where he is. But mentions in passing he's having a problem with his neighbors who because the original survey of the land is lost in the sands of time and the house was abandoned for decades have appropriated his property on both sides. One neighbor is on the city council equivalent of the hamlet and the other is the clan of local multi generational "bad seed" criminals and scumbags. I decided to take a look at Google maps and OMG. Like bad stereo types not only is their 5+ac completely covered in junk of all kinds it spills into and is blocking the river that skirts all three properties. Talk about you have to be careful what you wish for!


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## tq60

erikmannie said:


> This neighbor has a creek behind his house with a bike/walking path on either side of the creek. This particular bike path does not have a problem with homeless people, however.
> 
> I am 53 years old, and this is the first time in my life that I have had a problem with a complaining neighbor. The only way that I can think to solve it is to appease him.
> 
> One time my teenage son had a friend come over, and my son’s friend made the mistake of parking in front of my neighbor’s house. My neighbor knocked on our door, and told him that if he didn’t move his car that he was going to call the police. My son’s friend said “whatever” and moved his car. This is the type of person that I am dealing with. The car had only been parked there for about 10 minutes. I think the guy is bored and looking for problems. That would’ve been a really good time to not move the car and let him call the cops, and the cops would have said to him “Why the heck are you calling us out for this?!”


Street parking is fair game.

If someone parks in front of his house he cannot call cops.

Cops may advise he is a problem and they can enter into their call system that he is a complainer.

Whenever he threatens to call cops whip out your phone and tell him you will call for him and make the call.

He will likely ask you to stop.

First time just call a friend and wing it...

State that the dispatcher told you that the complainer must call themselves and hang up.

In past lives we maintained the comm systems for most of the small town departments and had their numbers memorized and with a few times this happened we would call one who would not be the responding office but would wing it as if they were, background noises such as radio traffic works wonders.

Dispatcher give them a lecture about tying up resources for responding to selfish petty stupid stuff was not going to happen.

They would follow up with remarks about how well the officers examine things like license plates on parked cars or other things they can ticket for while they are there...

Usually fixes the issue.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk


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## erikmannie

Winegrower said:


> I suggest you keep your garage door closed and turn off the music.



Why not just wear headphones?

I got the full update from our next door neighbor who has lived across the street and one house down from this baby for 30 years. He complained about her boat on their side yard, and she got two citations and had to build a higher fence to hide the boat. She extended this high fence all the way across her front yard, and she said this was entirely for the purpose of insulating her family from this clown.

She said that he is widely known as a compulsive complainer by both LE and anybody in the neighborhood who has been unlucky enough to end up in his crosshairs.

She says that he is a huge bully (“I’ll call the police!”) who has had a short range reign of terror here for decades.

I am going away for two months, but when I get back home I will weld & machine like I do, wear headphones if I want the music loud & this guy can go suck an egg if he doesn’t like it.

Today I was out there doing just what I did yesterday: lathe work & music at the same level as yesterday which is not very loud. He did not call in on me. I now have a wide angle camera on my bench facing the street so if anything interesting happens I will have a record of it, as well as upload it to YouTube and insert a link in this thread.

If I had to guess, I would say that he is one of those people who is miserable and wants to make sure that nobody else has any fun. I am still going to have fun.


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## randyjaco

I think the problem is where you live. I spent 20 years in California and lived in multiple communities.  It's the only place I have ever lived where I had problems with my neighbors. One of the problems with California is that much of the population is made up of persons who weren't happy where they lived before, so they moved to California. Now they are in California and they are not happy there either, they take it out on those who live around them.  They are often retired or independently wealthy. They tend not to have many diversions and demand that others around them conform to their norms, they tend to make use of law enforcement and the court system to achieve their wants. They often become powerful in the local homeowners association.They frequently have been successful forcing their victims to move away. There is no reasoning with them. Several times the LEO called would say that they were familiar with the misfit and offer suggestions.

Good luck, but that is just one of the reasons I am very happy to live in Texas.  
Randy


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## ThinWoodsman

Aaron_W said:


> It looks like Santa Rosa has some rather strict noise ordinances



Yeah, I don't miss Santa Rosa one bit. Spent about five years there.

My personal experience is that people who have to deal with proper winters are generally too busy to care much about what their neighbors get up to.
But proximity creates busybodies. The best neighbor is one you never see!

EDIT: Not trying to perpetuate an anti-CA streak here, just saw the preceding post. Maybe this is  a blue-red state effect


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## westerner

Ulma Doctor said:


> never try to make a crybaby happy, you will chase his approval as long as he lives


And that would be the VERY WORST outcome possible.


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## middle.road

It's not red or blue - I don't believe.
I noticed one thing when I lived in SoCal, there are an inordinate amount of fences. 
People want privacy, yet they moved into tightly packed sub-divisions.
Me personally like the country. At least there are less restrictive ordinances - most the time.
Then you have the type of complainers listed here who have such miserable, non-productive lives that they only get happiness out of making the lives of others around them miserable also.   
They should go volunteer their time somewhere where they might be useful and contribute to society somewhat.

I was discussing this situation with the Wife and how to handle these noisy vehicles going by, I don't want to call the Sheriff, would rather handle it person to person, but Honey brought up a counter point that if I do attempt that and the guy is a smaktard, he's going to know who then called the authorities. . .


----------



## middle.road

When you're welding, perhaps put up a solid screen. I'd wager that you'd be liable for flash damage. 
I'm thinking mainly young children and animals, but with a whiner like you have to deal with he could 'fake' it.



erikmannie said:


> Why not just wear headphones?
> 
> I got the full update from our next door neighbor who has lived across the street and one house down from this baby for 30 years. He complained about her boat on their side yard, and she got two citations and had to build a higher fence to hide the boat. She extended this high fence all the way across her front yard, and she said this was entirely for the purpose of insulating her family from this clown.
> 
> She said that he is widely known as a compulsive complainer by both LE and anybody in the neighborhood who has been unlucky enough to end up in his crosshairs.
> 
> She says that he is a huge bully (“I’ll call the police!”) who has had a short range reign of terror here for decades.
> 
> I am going away for two months, but when I get back home I will weld & machine like I do, wear headphones if I want the music loud & this guy can go suck an egg if he doesn’t like it.
> 
> Today I was out there doing just what I did yesterday: lathe work & music at the same level as yesterday which is not very loud. He did not call in on me. I now have a wide angle camera on my bench facing the street so if anything interesting happens I will have a record of it, as well as upload it to YouTube and insert a link in this thread.
> 
> If I had to guess, I would say that he is one of those people who is miserable and wants to make sure that nobody else has any fun. I am still going to have fun.


----------



## erikmannie

middle.road said:


> When you're welding, perhaps put up a solid screen. I'd wager that you'd be liable for flash damage.
> I'm thinking mainly young children and animals, but with a whiner like you have to deal with he could 'fake' it.



I have a proper welding curtain, but he definitely complained about that, too. This occurred at night. I have no problem making the welding curtain opaque.


----------



## stupoty

erikmannie said:


> I would be inclined to confront him and tell him to chill out, but my wife doesn’t want me to say anything to him because she runs a daycare out of our house so she has an additional interest in keeping the peace.
> 
> Have any of you guys experienced this? I leave the garage door open for light and ventilation.
> 
> I called the police station, and they said not to worry about it. There was no follow up to be done.



Sounds like you have been polite and a nice guy towards him which is always good, it's a difficult balance taking your neighbors feelings into account and when it's they are just being an ass.

Stu


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## erikmannie

I definitely have a crybaby on my hands.

I haven’t spoken to him since he called the police, but I was as polite as can be up until that point. He asked me to turn down my music, and I did. And then he called the police.

I have no problems wearing headphones now if the music is going to be even the slightest bit loud, but I don’t want to encourage him in any way to continue his bullying. I have the understanding that the way to deal with a bully is to confront them (“call them out”, “call their bluff”).

I am also a big fan of the Rope a Dope strategy: give these people all the rope they need, and let them hang themselves (speaking metaphorically, of course). Somebody told me that Muhammad Ali used this technique; I don’t know if it applies here. If it does apply here, this would involve me continuing to do what I am doing, and maybe at some point if he calls the police, then the police will end up telling him directly that I am not doing anything wrong.


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## middle.road

erikmannie said:


> I definitely have a crybaby on my hands.


As stated above, there will be no way you could ever appease this whiner short of moving out of the neighborhood.


----------



## erikmannie

middle.road said:


> As stated above, there will be no way you could ever appease this whiner short of moving out of the neighborhood.



Not going to happen. We both own, and I’m sure that neither one of us will ever move.


----------



## middle.road

Sign him up for informational flyers for Sun City AZ.   




__





						Home - Sun City, Arizona - The Original Fun City!
					

It’s the first, and many people say, the best. Sun City is an entire community dedicated to leisure and recreation for the active, retired adult.




					suncityaz.org
				






erikmannie said:


> Not going to happen. We both own, and I’m sure that neither one of us will ever move.


----------



## Shootymacshootface

erikmannie said:


> Not going to happen. We both own, and I’m sure that neither one of us will ever move.


It wouldn't hurt to let them know how really bad things could get.
I actually have a few things (leagal in my town) up my sleeve for when my busy bodies start their bs in the spring.


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## stupoty

Shootymacshootface said:


> It wouldn't hurt to let them know how really bad things could get.
> I actually have a few things (leagal in my town) up my sleeve for when my busy bodies start their bs in the spring.



ow no man your not going to encourage him to take up blacksmithing are ya ?


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## extropic

I'll bet that pre-trial representation by a lawyer, for a misdemeanor, would cost you somewhere in the neighborhood of $3-$4K.
It's important that you protect yourself from having to throw that money away.
I suggest you do a few things to protect yourself.
Have a consultation with a lawyer and find out if it's legal for you to protect your property with video and audio surveillance. Then follow through with the installation of what ever equipment you need to cover the threat.
Also from the lawyer, find out what it will take to get a restraining order against him requiring him to stay off of you property (at least).
Don't engage with him at all. Ignore him completely. After all, it's the general consensus that he's a trouble maker. You're not going to change him.
And last, but not least, know the law(s) (local ordinances) and ensure that you can not be found in violation.

Good luck.


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## silence dogood

Where I grew up my parents bought this piece of property and built their house on it.  One neighbor used to ride his horse though the land before my parents bought it.  The trouble was, he kept doing it,  Although he usually waited till no one was home.  He never could figure out that horseshoes leave such nice prints.  No matter what my dad did, couldn't get the jerk to stop.  It was finally solved.  He died.  P.


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## silence dogood

Oops, must have hit wrong button.  He was an old man, He did die a natural death.


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## Silverbullet

No respect for others , prove your noise level and forget it. He will be on the phone as soon as he sees the door open and lights on. When the police gets there show them and let them handle it. Don't let him stop your hobby. He don't have that right. Or do you to stop his fun of being a PITA OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD.  Some people will just never mind there own business. Good luck , my wife says why do you want to move away from everyone HERES THE REASON , 100 acres away from everyone minimum.


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## Superburban

There is always worse places to live.



> The purpose of the Citizen Inspector Training classes is to encourage citizens to be involved and to participate in the community in which they live. The Citizen Inspector Program was created in 1998 and it encourages participants to serve as the eyes and ears for the community. A citizen inspector’s role is to assist in keeping neighborhoods clean and safe, encourage neighbors to maintain their properties and report possible violations. They will not enforce the codes.
> 
> 
> The Bureau of Permits, Planning and Zoning and the Fire Prevention Bureau of the City of York offer Citizen Inspector Training classes, free of charge, for York City residents.


----------



## C-Bag

erikmannie said:


> I definitely have a crybaby on my hands.
> 
> I haven’t spoken to him since he called the police, but I was as polite as can be up until that point. He asked me to turn down my music, and I did. And then he called the police.
> 
> I have no problems wearing headphones now if the music is going to be even the slightest bit loud, but I don’t want to encourage him in any way to continue his bullying. I have the understanding that the way to deal with a bully is to confront them (“call them out”, “call their bluff”).
> 
> I am also a big fan of the Rope a Dope strategy: give these people all the rope they need, and let them hang themselves (speaking metaphorically, of course). Somebody told me that Muhammad Ali used this technique; I don’t know if it applies here. If it does apply here, this would involve me continuing to do what I am doing, and maybe at some point if he calls the police, then the police will end up telling him directly that I am not doing anything wrong.


It's also really good you know as many of your neighbors as you can. I literally know all of mine and know where they stand on our "problem". As bad as your neighbor is there is this crazy entitlement when it's a female. And of course she used it to her advantage until she finally stepped over the line with a community leader. I got it second hand because we were out of town but literally all the neighbors told me about it when we got back. Seems on a Sunday morning crack o' dawn everybody was awoken by her stereo cranked to 11 and was dancing in her driveway. The leader, K, called the police and kept them on the line on speaker phone while he went down to reason with her saying he had called the police and could she please turn down her music and did she know what time it was? She continued dancing while they had to yell at each other to be heard over the music and she basically blew him off when he tried to explain his wife is sick and they live 7 houses away and the music is so loud they can't sleep. I'm not sure what happened but she has not harassed anybody since. 

I am in no way saying you are making too much noise, I am relating how our problem was solved. Up until then we were thinking we'd have to move. She now has a quiet renter and is only at the house sporadically and never cranks the music. She is crazy and on all kinds of meds and seems to perseverate about any conflict and once she starts it gets crazy. I can only think the local sheriff had had enough of her because the only time they were in our area it had to do with her being called about and then her calling about who she thought called the cops on her. 

Good luck with your nutbar. He sounds like a pain.


----------



## erikmannie

Well, _*so far*_ I have stumbled upon the magic bullet: the wide angle camera mounted front and center on the workbench in the front of the garage, pointing toward the street. 

I haven't had one iota of trouble from the crybaby since I placed the camera there, and I am doing the same thing that I did (lathe work and music at medium volume) the day that he called the cops.


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## BrentH

My Neighbour wanted a larger shop on his property than the township would allow after rezoning us so he filed the proper papers, invited over the neighbours, coffee and donuts etc, laid out the plans and discussed all the options for the shop.  Several neighbours who are into creating things thought it was great and he had carefully arranged the shop location as far from everyone as possible.  Cost him a lot to petition the township and to have all the pre-engineering done.  Several of the neighbours (one lady in particular who lived several acres away)  did not want the the guy to have his shop (he was retiring this year and wanted a place to play).  The one lady was very upset that her morning view of our properties would be spoiled by the shop as she sat on her front porch.  The shop would have been very far away from her and behind lots of trees.

After his second appeal was turned down (same lady complaining and welling up fake tears at the hearing) my neighbour said "screw it I will build according to the law of the land"

Now he has 4 x 750 sqft shops as close to the lady as possible and he cut down all the trees that would impede her view of the lovely black corrugated sheet metal of the sides of two of his shops.  He now finds having his 4 out buildings  works well (he adapted) for his purpose and the front porch sitting lady pretty much sees SFA.

Not sure who some would see as the "Bad neighbour" in this situation but I like my neighbour and the lady is a long long way away.......


----------



## Dhal22

BrentH said:


> My Neighbour wanted a larger shop on his property than the township would allow after rezoning us so he filed the proper papers, invited over the neighbours, coffee and donuts etc, laid out the plans and discussed all the options for the shop.  Several neighbours who are into creating things thought it was great and he had carefully arranged the shop location as far from everyone as possible.  Cost him a lot to petition the township and to have all the pre-engineering done.  Several of the neighbours (one lady in particular who lived several acres away)  did not want the the guy to have his shop (he was retiring this year and wanted a place to play).  The one lady was very upset that her morning view of our properties would be spoiled by the shop as she sat on her front porch.  The shop would have been very far away from her and behind lots of trees.
> 
> After his second appeal was turned down (same lady complaining and welling up fake tears at the hearing) my neighbour said "screw it I will build according to the law of the land"
> 
> Now he has 4 x 750 sqft shops as close to the lady as possible and he cut down all the trees that would impede her view of the lovely black corrugated sheet metal of the sides of two of his shops.  He now finds having his 4 out buildings  works well (he adapted) for his purpose and the front porch sitting lady pretty much sees SFA.
> 
> Not sure who some would see as the "Bad neighbour" in this situation but I like my neighbour and the lady is a long long way away.......




HAHAHAHA on her.  That's the problem with being a bad neighbor, revenge is fun.  I go out of my way to be nice to my neighbors, as I know first hand how fun it can be.


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## BGHansen

derf said:


> Be a good neighbor and give them some ear plugs.....


I was thinking more in the line of a big pliers to pull the bug out of his butt.

Bruce


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## erikmannie

He has a huge issue about people parking on the street in front of his house. At night, he parks in his driveway. First thing in the morning, he pulls out and parks in this spot in the street that is so precious to him. Before he goes to bed, he pulls his truck back up into the driveway. It seems to me that he should get a life.


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## eugene13

Just be really careful, we don't want a tragedy.


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## tq60

BGHansen said:


> I was thinking more in the line of a big pliers to pull the bug out of his butt.
> 
> Bruce


Lend them a D9 so they can do a rectal-crainomtery 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk


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## Superburban

BrentH said:


> After his second appeal was turned down (same lady complaining and welling up fake tears at the hearing) my neighbour said "screw it I will build according to the law of the land"
> 
> Now he has 4 x 750 sqft shops as close to the lady as possible and he cut down all the trees that would impede her view of the lovely black corrugated sheet metal of the sides of two of his shops.  He now finds having his 4 out buildings  works well (he adapted) for his purpose and the front porch sitting lady pretty much sees SFA.


That is similar to what I am doing. I tried to go through the county, to get permission to get a shipping container, and put a roof on, and paint it to look like a building, but One neighbor complained (The county insists a container is industrial, and I live in a residential zoned area). I do not need a permit to add as many 120 sq ft or less sheds. So eventually I will have a row of 120 sq ft sheds two stories high. Will cost me a lot more, so I will only do a few a year.

After all the years of working retail, and living in a city, I understand why people hate people. The codes inspector in our area is nice, but he still has rules and a boss he has to go by.


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## BROCKWOOD

No respect for others is Not how I wanted to begin my response. Perhaps, inability to tolerate others (within reason) would be better. I've had live band practices in an apartment (no later than 9pm) for years: Until that 1 neighbor moved in. I've also lived in an apartment where not even an acoustic could be tolerated. I am blessed to be where I am & even recorded an album here - but always respected the neighbors, turned it all off by 9pm & even adjusted my schedule to account for the nightshift neighbors. A Lot can be done between 4 & 9 in the evening!

As for light noise, you could try to lower your garage door part way & set up a fan to help exhaust fumes. If it's just noise below acceptable dBs, let them call the police - you'll get to have them explain to your neighbor how silly they're being.

In other news: I hope your wife if licensed to watch kids. Not having that in order could land you in more trouble than you have now.


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## middle.road

Just sayin'


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## Marc Moreau

erikmannie said:


> I have a whiny neighbor directly across the street in the residential neighborhood that I live in which happens to be single family homes.
> 
> Today I was working on the lathe and playing some country music. The music wasn’t even very loud, and I don’t think parting steel makes too much noise.
> 
> I stopped the work to take my son to work and drop off my timecard, and when I got back my wife told me that the police had showed up because he called in about the noise.
> 
> Obviously, it would’ve been very quiet when the police officer got here. The complaint was called in about 4 PM.
> 
> My neighbor complains about a lot of other people in the neighborhood. He is a retired mailman. If he has any hobbies, I have not seen evidence of that.
> 
> I am leaving home for two months, so this won’t be a problem until I get back. I will still be working in the shop on the weekends, but I guess I can wear headphones.
> 
> He has also complained to me twice about the light from behind my welding curtain. I guess a welding curtain isn’t good enough.
> 
> I honestly just think he is bored and his hobby might be complaining.
> 
> I would be inclined to confront him and tell him to chill out, but my wife doesn’t want me to say anything to him because she runs a daycare out of our house so she has an additional interest in keeping the peace.
> 
> Have any of you guys experienced this? I leave the garage door open for light and ventilation.
> 
> I called the police station, and they said not to worry about it. There was no follow up to be done.
> 
> I have lived in this city all my life, and all the neighborhoods that I have lived in always had people working outside, in the garage, music playing, kids playing outside, etc. I honestly don’t see this guy’s side of the story.
> 
> I think that the way that this will end up is it if he calls the cops again and I am doing what I do in the garage, then the police will end up telling him that I’m not doing anything wrong.
> 
> What I do in my garage is not a business. People ask me to do work for them, and I tell them that I don’t have time because that is true.
> 
> I just don’t get it. The only thing that makes sense is that he is a whiner.


I been doing mechanic all my life in home but every time a neighbour ask me for help I was alway's there to find trere problem's most time for free. I alway's care about the noise like music, grinding 'impact wrench, when I use them for a short time I close my door's. Some person's are jalous and mean but if every body like you they will take care of you,and some will say watch that guy he will complaint agains you. Good luck


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## Cobra

RJSakowski said:


> There is a free app for Andriod phones thar has a decibel meter.  It'd called Physics Toolbox Suite.  Lots of other cool tools too.



Great app!


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## Dabbler

Since this has become an anecdote thread of a kind, here's another story:

My Friend Rudy was about to build a garage workshop on his 3 acres.  His neighbour was building a big shop/garage/barn on his larger acreage (around 5 acres, I think)  He got all the approvals, got permission to build.  even got written permission form all adjoining neighbours.  THEN the fun started.  A neighbour one away complained to the rural council 3 days _AFTER _the shop was built. He became the PITA for the council, who then ordered him to tear down HALF of his quanset.  (to a Sq footage less than surrounding quansets).  After 3 appeals, he finally tore it down and had all this unsightly building material all piled on his property. 

Now enters the silver lining.  It turns out that the smaller size suited him anyway, and he sold the remainder of the quanset to my friend.  We are now in the process of erecting a really nice 40 foot wide shop on his property - with easy pre-approvals, as his is exactly the same size as the order, and less than others in the area.

Nothing this power-tripping neighbour can do:  and now he has two quansets facing his property instead of one!


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## C-Bag

ThinWoodsman said:


> Yeah, I don't miss Santa Rosa one bit. Spent about five years there.
> 
> My personal experience is that people who have to deal with proper winters are generally too busy to care much about what their neighbors get up to.
> But proximity creates busybodies. The best neighbor is one you never see!
> 
> EDIT: Not trying to perpetuate an anti-CA streak here, just saw the preceding post. Maybe this is  a blue-red state effect


Not to worry TW, you and Randy do have good points. But one thing this thread points out nutbars are not just concentrated here in CA if you read all the threads. Between crazy zoning laws and what I can only call obstructive neighbors it doesn't matter if you are in the north, south east or west in town or out in the boonies. Red or blue it only takes one and there is no reason or rhyme to it. 

And for the record I apologize for getting my knickers in a bunch over a past thread.


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## Jubil

erikmannie said:


> I will do this tomorrow, but I will only stand on the sidewalk in front of his house. I wish I had a decibel meter.



I recently downloaded a free decibel app on my phone. Its called DecibelX. Might be just what you need.
Chuck


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## Ulma Doctor

erikmannie said:


> He has a huge issue about people parking on the street in front of his house. At night, he parks in his driveway. First thing in the morning, he pulls out and parks in this spot in the street that is so precious to him. Before he goes to bed, he pulls his truck back up into the driveway. It seems to me that he should get a life.


Wow this guy really believes he owns the parking in front of his house on a public street 
Entitlement is never good


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## erikmannie

In a surprise development, somebody stole the wide angle helmet cam (an old Contour ROAM worth about $60) ) that was front & center on the bench at the front (street side) of my garage when I popped into the house to use the bathroom. I guess I can't leave the garage door open anymore when I go into the house for a minute.

The 32GB SD card in the camera was freshly formatted so whoever stole the camera didn't get any data. I had not started recording yet.

I'm just glad that no tools were stolen.

EDIT: My wife and I looked for it. She found it in on the floor. My bad!


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## Shootymacshootface

erikmannie said:


> In a surprise development, somebody stole the wide angle helmet cam (an old Contour ROAM worth about $60) ) that was front & center on the bench at the front (street side) of my garage when I popped into the house to use the bathroom. I guess I can't leave the garage door open anymore when I go into the house for a minute.
> 
> The 32GB SD card in the camera was freshly formatted so whoever stole the camera didn't get any data. I had not started recording yet.
> 
> I'm just glad that no tools were stolen.


Wow, this makes me feel a bit angry.


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## middle.road

That is ballsy. How did they know that it wasn't tied into the net and uploading directly to the cloud as they grabbed it...?


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## erikmannie

Shootymacshootface said:


> Wow, this makes me feel a bit angry.





middle.road said:


> That is ballsy. How did they know that it wasn't tied into the net and uploading directly to the cloud as they grabbed it...?


I made a mistake. I didn't look hard enough before I posted that. I am glad that there was no theft.


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## mmcmdl

Luckily , all my neighbors are blue collar with working shops and farms of their own . They all have their own 4 wheelers , machines , tractors , tools etc . I am now the elder in the hood (35 years) and I have no complaints . We all do what we want , no HOAs . They love my fires too .  We are back up to around 15 youngsters now after yaers with no trick or treaters .


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## GunsOfNavarone

Most noise curfews are after 9 pm...I would think unless its just crazy, there is nothing he can do Police can show up because the have too, but they won't do anything. Light flashes from welding are a non issue. If he expects 50-100 people can live in a 1 block area and he wants to hear and see no one and nothing..well he needs to move now. Don't sweat it, do you, you'll be fine.


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## erikmannie

GunsOfNavarone said:


> Most noise curfews are after 9 pm...I would think unless its just crazy, there is nothing he can do Police can show up because the have too, but they won't do anything. Light flashes from welding are a non issue. If he expects 50-100 people can live in a 1 block area and he wants to hear and see no one and nothing..well he needs to move now. Don't sweat it, do you, you'll be fine.



I see that you can buy any size “No Crybabies” signs & decals. I thought about getting a 14” one and putting it on my welding curtain facing the street, but my wife doesn’t want me to escalate this.


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## mikey

She is a wise woman, Erik.


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## erikmannie

mikey said:


> She is a wise woman, Erik.



She recommended the “do not escalate policy”. I’m sure that I would have made the situation much worse, as I literally had the 14” No Crybabies sign purchase queued up on eBay. I had just enough sense to run it by her before I clicked the Buy it Now.


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## Illinoyance

One ******* neighbor called the cops on my niece because the bug zapper was too loud.


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## erikmannie

Illinoyance said:


> One ******* neighbor called the cops on my niece because the bug zapper was too loud.



Another crybaby!


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## Dhal22

No escalation,  maybe but no way he gets off scot free.


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## Ulma Doctor

i'm sorry, but escalation is the only way to freedom.
DO NOT change your behavior to suit this jerk off's ego
if you are acting within the law this piece of dung can pound salt.
you live in a country that provides rights, and pursuit of happiness - regardless of what or who disagrees with them.
show this guy, by telling him that you are not going to take his crap any longer.
Explain, that you will do, what you like, when you like to do it, and if you have a problem, call the police.
if you can, tape the interaction- be calm rational and,
for the love of God- stop asking his permission to do what you want.


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## GunsOfNavarone

Seriously, imagine cops and the real situations they deal with...now imagine them getting a call because the light was too bright in neighbors garage, or the lathe was too loud (you would have to be doing something terribly wrong) in that same garage. Laugh it off. Sooner or later the cops are going to tell this man what your rights are. You really have no worry...and it will eat at this sissy mans craw.


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## Superburban

Its not always that simple. I know of one police department that has a policy that if they are called out, someone gets a ticket. Most of which are sent in the mail, They will ask you to turn it down, then a few days later you get a ticket in the mail. To give nothing, or a warning, they have to notify their superrior before they leave the scene. They know most people will just pay a ticket, rather then fight it. How do you prove days or months later to a judge that you were not as load as the officer says, that has notes saying different. Tickets equal more income for the department.


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## kb58

Since this thread borders the issues of California as the root of all problems, living in the country as a solution, and complaining neighbors:

A guy on a survivalist forum was railing against California as being the root of all his problems, so he moves to eastern Oregon. He buys something like 5 acres with a stream, then dams it up so that he'll have plenty of water in the event of TEOTWAWKI (Google it), and that's when his troubles started. The local county told him that he can't block off the stream, and he freaked out, ranting about the government, saying he was a freedom loving patriot and had the right to do whatever he wants. So I couldn't help asking, "So if I buy the acreage _upstream of you_, I have the right to dam it off, right?" No response.


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## Shootymacshootface

^^^
Only the government can do stuff like that.


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## middle.road

Better cover your ass as far as the welding flash goes.
If he claims his eyes are messed up from your welding he will be able to find a lawyer who is more than willing to file frivolous lawsuits.
Do you really want to wager your time, savings and assets on proving him wrong?
The noise? You can setup a webcam and recorder to cover for that. 
Flash damage to a person staring at welding flash? 
How do you prove that the person didn't suffer damage? He lies - you lose defending yourself.


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## erikmannie

middle.road said:


> Better cover your ass as far as the welding flash goes.
> If he claims his eyes are messed up from your welding he will be able to find a lawyer who is more than willing to file frivolous lawsuits.
> Do you really want to wager your time, savings and assets on proving him wrong?
> The noise? You can setup a webcam and recorder to cover for that.
> Flash damage to a person staring at welding flash?
> How do you prove that the person didn't suffer damage? He lies - you lose defending yourself.



I will definitely be putting an opaque covering over my welding curtain when I get home. Also, I can listen to my music on headphones, no problem.

As for the noise of metalworking, we will see if he calls solely on that. Maybe I’ll have to permanently close my garage door and put up a soundproof barrier on that entire wall.

Having said that, nobody else has complained about my light or noise. I have two teenagers who work graveyard sleeping in the bedroom adjacent to my shop; they say that they cannot hear me.

Also, my wife runs a daycare in our house, and those kids are sleeping for three hours in the middle of the day; my wife says that she has never heard me the whole time we have lived there. I could go on and on: my mother-in-law lives in a room directly above my shop, and she said she can’t hear me. All of the people that walk by on the sidewalk are very friendly and I very often get a smile and a wave.

I had said that we called the bored & whiny neighbor Baby Chris, but I found out his name is Pat. So we call him Crybaby Pat.

I am out of town for a few months, but my wife says that she sees crybaby Pat come out of his house, look at our house, look up and down the street scrutinizing what is going on, and then walks back in the house a few times a day. He probably misses me because he has nothing to complain about.


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## BGHansen

How about making a whirl-a-gig likeness of yourself with your backside pointed in his direction?  The windmill action could be your pants dropping.

Or go with a static, ready-made like one of these!

Bruce


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## kb58

Ulma Doctor said:


> Wow this guy really believes he owns the parking in front of his house on a public street
> Entitlement is never good


We had a coworker who had this exact hang up which had been going on for years. If people parked in front of his house overnight, uprooted plants would be found thrown on their hood. It all came to a big end when he finally snapped and walked into the "offending" neighbor's yard with a pistol. It jammed when he tried to fire it, then left and returned with a shotgun, killing the neighbor through their living room window. The cops showed up and told him to drop it, he turned it towards them, and that was the end of him.

Point being, you never really know about the mindset of complaining neighbors, so be careful about "showing them." There's a chance that they know no limits.


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## Ulma Doctor

kb58 said:


> We had a coworker who had this exact hang up which had been going on for years. If people parked in front of his house overnight, uprooted plants would be found thrown on their hood. It all came to a big end when he finally snapped and walked into the "offending" neighbor's yard with a pistol. It jammed when he tried to fire it, then left and returned with a shotgun, killing the neighbor through their living room window. The cops showed up and told him to drop it, he turned it towards them, and that was the end of him.
> 
> Point being, you never really know about the mindset of complaining neighbors, so be careful about "showing them." There's a chance that they know no limits.


you can live your life in fear, or you can stand up for yourself
a coward dies one thousand deaths


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## kb58

Okay.


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## erikmannie

Some guy the next town over (Cotati, CA) just got shot to death over “the street parking in front of the neighbor’s house”. This particular feud had been going on for about 30 years.

The guy that ended up getting shot to death had purposely parked a junky Buick in front of his neighbor’s house as often as he could, which ended up being most of the time.

The neighbor who was protective about the street parking in front of his place eventually got tired of looking at the junky Buick and went over to his neighbor’s house and fired multiple handgun rounds into the neighbor who was legally parked.


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## 7milesup

erikmannie said:


> Some guy the next town over (Cotati, CA) just got shot to death over “the street parking in front of the neighbor’s house”. This particular feud had been going on for about 30 years.
> 
> The guy that ended up getting shot to death had purposely parked a junky Buick in front of his neighbor’s house as often as he could, which ended up being most of the time.
> 
> The neighbor who was protective about the street parking in front of his place eventually got tired of looking at the junky Buick and went over to his neighbor’s house and fired multiple handgun rounds into the neighbor who was legally parked.



Well, he won't have to worry about who is parked in front of his "former" house after he goes to the "big house' as my dad called it.


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## tq60

If running a day care center then zero welding ever when clients present.


NEVER!!!!

Close garage door or otherwise make sure zero light can escape.

We had surface burns on cornea from reflected light from welding behind us.

Change of light to cause pupil to move hurts badly.

Light can reflect and travel and most likely be harmless but as others stated, hard to defend as just a photo or video proves it happened but no need for light meter to start a fuss.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk


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## erikmannie

tq60 said:


> If running a day care center then zero welding ever when clients present.
> 
> 
> NEVER!!!!
> 
> Close garage door or otherwise make sure zero light can escape.
> 
> We had surface burns on cornea from reflected light from welding behind us.
> 
> Change of light to cause pupil to move hurts badly.
> 
> Light can reflect and travel and most likely be harmless but as others stated, hard to defend as just a photo or video proves it happened but no need for light meter to start a fuss.
> 
> Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk



Yet another reason to work on the lathe—I love it!


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## Titanium Knurler

erikmannie said:


> ”...my mother-in-law lives in a room directly above my shop...”
> 
> Maybe introduce your neighbor to your mother-in-law; if she is like most, things will take care of themselves.


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