Ask not for Whom the Dog Barks

Word Counts:

Well, week before last was... less than productive, really. And I was feeling sort of pissy about it most of this week, so I didn't post last week.

Last week I was sick on Sunday and Monday. On Tuesday, I started to feel better, but Kevin's new wireless internet equipment was due fed-ex in the early afternoon, so he decided that I was feeling "too ill" and he needed to come home, take shiny stuff out of boxes, swear a lot, finally get it set up, and HE went to take a nap.

Does this seem unfair and rude to anyone else, or is it just me?

Tuesday - Friday, we had intermitant cable outages while he got the system set up and working completely. It took me nearly two years to get to the point where I could do basic trouble-shooting for cable outages on our regular, wired hookup. And I don't like fucking with computer stuff that I don't understand, so whenever the cable went out, I'd have to (usually) go wake Kevin up and let him putter around for a while before the thing fixed itself with no explanation whatsoever and caused him to glare at me like I was casting a voodoo hex on his precious shiny new toy.

Yeah, that's coming across a little bitter.

I can't help it, though.

Our redneck neighbors (they of the "oh. ick" post a while back) have a dog. A mutt, to be precise. Now, to be completely fair, I do not like dogs. I have rarely liked dogs, I think they are stupid, smelly, loud, gross, and somewhat scary. I know this. So I try not to associate with dogs because I feel that way. I know I am likely to over-react to someone's loud/messy/bothersome dog than I will react to someone's loud/messy/bothersome child. (I know I've heard people complain somewhere about loud/messy/bothersome cats, but I've never had a problem with cats that weren't an up-close personal problem, and really, if someone tells you that their cat bites or is mean, leave it the fuck alone if you can, sheesh, how hard is that? Which is not to say that cats don't make problems too, just that I've never had one, and I've certainly never had a cat problem with a neighbor's cat.)

I am short tempered and crabby because this dog barks. Not constantly. Constantly I could call the police, frequently, and eventually they would either get the dog to shut up, or someone would take it away and give it to someone who had a yard. Because, really, I think keeping any dog that doesn't have the word "toy" in front of it in an apartment is just cruel. Likewise, I think anyone who owns a husky and who lives south of Maryland ought to be forced to wear a furcoat year-round.

This dog only barks when something bothers it. The problem is, people going to work or coming home bothers it. And when something bothers the dog, it barks. Not long, maybe 30-45 seconds or so. However...

What you have to understand about my apartment building is that no one who lives here has anything remotely resembling a 8-5 work schedule. Kevin works 3-4 days a week, 5:30 am -5:30 pm. Our upstairs neighbor is in the navy. He works 6 am - 4 pm. His wife works 8 pm - 3 am. Don't ask me how they ever got together long enough to have a baby. The neighbor cat-cornered across the hall gets home around 11:30 pm. Our upstairs neighbor across the hall gets home around 2:30 am.

I think you're starting to get the idea.

My typical evening has been like this recently. Go to bed around 10:30. Get woke up at 11:30. Get woke up at 2:30. Get woke up at 3:15. Get woke up at 3:45 when Kevin's alarm starts going off. Get woke up at 5:10 when Kevin leaves for work. Get woke up at 5:45 when upstairs neighbor goes to work.

I haven't gotten this little sleep regularly since Jess was nursing.

So, word count for last week:

August 30: 268 words
August 31: 525 words
September 1: 798 words

Total: 1,591 (below goal by 909 words)

This week:

September 5: 973 words
September 6: 854 words
September 9: 552 words
September 11: 1,158 words

Total: 3,537 words (over goal by 1,037 words)

I guess it averages out.

Posted by tisfan at September 12, 2005 10:55 AM