Patience, Young Jedi. Patience....
More RL adventures here, kids.
Let me begin by saying that I live on the second floor of a two-storey, wood-framed building. It's not ideal, but we moved here back in 2006 for a reason. At the time, my mother-in-law was fighting a comeback of breast cancer (she died on Boxing Day the same year) and my father-in-law had recently been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. Their house is two blocks away. We've been on call 24/7 for four years now.
I don't mind, really. This is what families do. Well, what they're supposed to do, anyway.
But lately....
I've been dealing with a drunken, abusive neighbor. In recent weeks, he has been blaring his music at all hours. In a wood-framed building, this guy has a drum kit. Seriously. A drum kit.
Getting nowehere in trying to reason with him, I phoned the property manager to complain. About 15-20 complaints later, and after he got drunk and followed the Superintendent's 15-year-old daughter around while screaming "Yo fatty!" at her repeatedly, they finally sent him a letter telling him to smarten up. They also commenced eviction proceedings, since apart from all of this he hits on every female who lives in or comes near the building and staggers around the parking lot, drunk and incoherent. People with kids (like me and several others) don't particularly appreciate this.
And then my car was vandalized. Someone took a screwdriver or icepick to every single window and quite simply scratched the hell out of them. There's ~$2,000 worth of damage. We didn't have 'comprehensive' insurance to cover vandalism since it was an 'occasional use' vehicle, so my car -- a previously-pristine '98 Bonneville with 120,000km on it -- is a write-off.
Later that night, three neighbors and I heard him bragging about it to his kids (seriously, to his kids?) and telling them how to lie to cover for him if/when the police asked about it. He finished off the evening by spending under my bedroom window, screaming about how much he hates me, how he thinks my wife is cheating on me and "Don't get me started on those !@#$@#$ kids." (The children who live with me, btw, are a 13-year-old girl and a 5-year-old boy.)
The following Wednesday (a week ago today) he was standing in the parking lot outside my apartment at 11:00 p.m., pointing a camera toward my place and taking flash photos. That same night he followed my wife around outside when she went downstairs for a cigarette. He just kept saying "Good evening!" over and over and over again while staying about three feet behind her.
Two-bit intimidation. That's all it is.
And yes, we've spoken to the police.
Apparently all of this is harassment, but not criminal harassment. The fact that he admitted to the vandalism in front of witnesses is meaningless, since nobody actually saw him do it. They said they could go talk to him, but that would probably just make it worse. (Translation: "Wow, sucks to be you, but we don't want to do anything. Now if you'll excuse us, it's time for our coffee break.")
Their advice? Move. Seriously. Move.
Until then, they won't do anything unless someone actually gets hurt. But if I do something, I become The Bad Guy.
Helpful, right?
----
So, if you happen to catch me on IRC and I'm not all that chatty or I seem irritated, now you know why.
But remember....
Sometimes, believing in Karma means taking the long view. My wife has somehow managed to convince me that going to prison because of this moron isn't worth it. But eventually he's going to cross paths with someone who lacks my patience.
I only hope I get to hear about it.
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