Sunday, October 21, 2007

Noisy neighbors and lack of sunlight.

So much for working outside. In theory we should have enough wireless signal to work in the yard and enjoy a little sunlight on the weekends that way. In practice, sometimes it just won't fly.

We have one of those neighbors. She doesn't throw parties or generally make much noise, but she likes to talk on her cell phone in the yard. Correction: when she speaks on her cell phone in the yard, IT'S REALLY LOUD.

She's usually not working on her garden while she does this.

There are nice areas nearby where she could walk and talk on her phone where everyone else is doing this, too, but she doesn't.

No, she has to talk, really loudly, right outside our house.

I realize that it's a free country and she should be allowed to do whatever she wants, so it's ridiculous for me to complain. But it's still driving me crazy.

In general I love where we live. But there are some things that make me fantasize about moving away. In theory we'll move when (if) I get a faculty position, since I'm assuming I won't be getting one near where we live now.

Even if I don't get a job this year, I think I'm reaching my limit on the current situation. I'm one of those people, I like to move every five years. Maybe that's weird, or just a leftover from moving so much when I was actually in school, but much as I like stability, I also get restless.

Someday I want to live in a house that is not a cave. Where we could just pull back the shades and get actual daylight and some idea what temperature it is outside. Our current house is perpetually cold and dark, which is nice when it's hot out and gloomy the rest of the time.

It's especially bad when I feel like I'm spending most of my life indoors with no windows. Sometimes I feel like a houseplant in the shade, on its way to wither and die.

A friend of ours has been on and off the wagon with blue light therapy for his sleep disorder and SAD. He says it works and that I should try it, but for some reason I'm always too lazy. Maybe it's because I'm always tired.

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6 Comments:

At 3:12 PM, Blogger yajeev said...

Love your post labels.

 
At 5:31 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I use a bright light box for SAD starting in the fall and I love it. It makes a huge difference in my energy levels and mood. You can order them online and have them shipped to your house. I sit in front of mine while I'm eating breakfast, so it doesn't take any extra time.

 
At 6:32 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

We used to have neighbours like that, having crazy conversations outside. But actually they were so ludicrous that it was (a) really funny to listen along to and (b) really, *really* difficult not to lean over the fence and try to correct some of the National Enquirer-esque factoids they were coming up with. Except for the fact that I figured I would get punched....

 
At 10:40 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Did you know that, here in Sweden, someone sued his neighbour for smoking in the garden and polluting the air that he breathes? Even though that neighbour was smoking in her own garden...! I think she now has to pick another corner to smoke.

 
At 1:03 PM, Blogger Johnny Virgil said...

Your neighbor problem needs some of this:

http://www.liquidass.com/index.html

Eventually she won't go out there anymore and you'll have the yard to yourself. :)

 
At 3:36 PM, Blogger Ms.PhD said...

yajeev,

thanks for noticing.

johnny,

the scientist in me has to wonder what it's made of.

the rest of me doesn't want to know.

 

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