#getupandwrite #noediting

Wednesday's child is full of woe. That is how the saying goes anyway. I didn't exactly wake up full of woe, and I admit that I am melancholy by nature. However, I've had a period of not experiencing that melancholia in the mornings, and that period has been the time I've been away from Wellfleet. I find myself thinking that  maybe it is time for me to move on, even though I've manifested some dreams here. Maybe it's August and people aren't on their best behaviors, and I returned smack dab in the middle of that. 

 I have a new neighbor in the house in front of me. Joy, God bless her, held on until 93, refusing to move from her house and passing right before the quarantine. She was a spry sprite - always calling me "Kathleen" and putting on red lipstick when I told her I'd be by to visit. The house sold quickly. There has been a spate of people wanting to leave the city and move to the quieter places that in their view, is more affordable. And maybe for them it is. But for this ranch house, "the third house built on the block" Joy once told me, a young couple from Wellfleet are the new owners. All of us surrounding them are pleased. He has an oyster claim at the end of the road and she owns a popular boutique in Eastham. I work with her mother at the elementary school. I learned all of this last Saturday afternoon when I returned to my house (yay!) and went over to introduce myself before dropping off some Trader Joe's goodies to my other neighbors next door.  He apologized for the noise. He and a few friends were putting a new floor in. Saws and pneumatic nails were buzzing and pounding. "Don't worry about it!" I said over the noise, "I have been there!". That was at 5 PM. At 10:00 P.M. I was gritting my teeth, and swallowing my tongue. I was exhausted. Didn't he remember that I had been traveling for over 8 hours? At 11, after much fretting, I mustered up the courage and walked down, and knocked on the door, which was closed. The table saw on the deck was lit up and someone was doing cuts.  "Um.. I'm sorry ("why was I apologizing?" I silently scolded myself)  I get it - I know you want to finish your project, but when do you guys think you're going to wrap it up?" He was sort of funny about it. "I'm glad to know I'm keeping up the neighborhood" he replied with a sheepish grin. And they stopped soon afternoon. So, imagine my thought process, when last night, from 6  - 11 pm the saws and hammers were going again. We have a 10 PM noise ordinance in our town. We also have this "born here" entitlement, which means if you were "born here" you get to get away with anything. The stories I've heard....

I lay in bed, wondering what I should do. I'm a good neighbor, and in fact, all of us in the surrounding houses are really good to each other. I didn't understand why this person, new to the 'hood, would think it was ok to do construction at 11 PM at night. And why I was trepidatious about confronting him a second time. I text consulted a friend, who replied "Be careful. It might not be a good idea". I got her reasoning -  there are men who begin yelling uncontrollably (no hyberbole here)  if they feel you are stepping on their toes. That has happened to me a couple of times. Once for asking a contractor to come over and put a lag bolt into the deck he was working on, the second time for asking for a bid to finish the interior painting of my house. Both of these guys were "born here". The first time, I reported Charles to community development office where I had hired him from and sent them the voice mail he had left me. The second time, the step-son of a good friend, I just waited until he was done ranting at me that my house was "a piece of shit" needed "A LOT OF WORK!" and said, Eben, I was just asking you to give me a bid so I budget the rest of the painting. Then, he  sheepishly grinned and said "ok". This kind of behavior was familiar to me because there was a time I'd be on the other end of the phone of an unreasonable publicist or director yelling obscenities at me for a clip of b-roll. Honestly.

The saws stopped right around 11 last night. I was reading, I fell asleep. I wasn't awoken by construction, but I woke up this morning a bit on the down side about it. I think I have that seed of fear that has sprouted among humankind. I don't want to lose sight of the social contract, that we look out for each other, that our community is what we need to survive. I'm in the middle of reading Harry Potter book 5 with my students for Pete's sake - it could not be more clear about division and meanness and ego and things falling apart. Dare I write that I'm shrinking back because I don't want to be yelled at by a young guy? I don't want to be slapped or shot or trolled. It's the meanness that gets me. Like that bumper sticker I've seen pasted up on the back of the Yield sign at the end of my road "Make Liberals Cry Again". It's both funny and sad. Sad for the person who posted it. As a teacher, this is exactly what we are modeling kids not to do. "Be Kind" "Kindness Matters" These are the slogans I see everywhere in schools.  I wonder what these kids, seeing adults act this way, think. Add to the irony of pasting it on the back of a "Yield" sign.