[thechat] We *did* try -- but we're moving away

Stephane Deschamps (nota-bene.org) evolt at nota-bene.org
Thu Sep 23 03:58:54 CDT 2004


Hey all,

We've just finished negociating to buy a house.

Which is in itself a good thing.

But it's also a sad piece of news, because it means we let go of one of 
our "holy principles": integration with people of lower social classes 
(no despising intended).

We live in a building, above a man who's always drunk, and his son (25) 
who's no better. We've tried for three years to be nice to them, not 
call the cops at three in the morning because they were arguing at the 
top of their voices, or when sonny would play his rap music and the 
boom-boom would make the walls tremble.

So we tried to be social and nice with them. Tried to talk them into 
being reasonable, without bringing in the cops to avoid them the trouble 
(especially considering sonny already had problems with the police before).

But no. One month ago they fought from three to four in the morning, and 
when we called them from one balcony to the other, their fight sobered 
up (but not them), and to have fun at our expense they put very loud 
music on, until the cops came at *five* -- of course I was supposed to 
be up at six to go to work.

At the moment they fight every night, with words incredible from son to 
dad ("you old bastard drunkard") and dad to son ("you son of a bitch").

Now that we've got our little Camille, we feel even more tense, because 
of the risk of awaking her. And she doesn't seem to mind so much, except 
that our tenseness shows and she makes a big fuss when nighttime comes. 
She yells for two hours in a row every night.

So we're off. We throw the towel.

We're in for a nice little house with a garden in a quiet neighbourhood. 
That's very sad, because our social principles have to give up to 
practical realities. We'll be where no one yells.

Side effect: we won't take any holidays for a few years. No Icevolt, then...

Good news, then: nice little house, nice surroundings, barbecue, and a 
spare room for friends. Anyone willing to come to Paris (yeah, France) 
is welcome at our place, although it will be approximately 45 minutes 
away from Paris itself.

One good for one bad, then.

But it really hurts to feels vanquished when you just want to treat some 
people like responsible, adult people.

-- 
Stéphane Deschamps
personal: http://nota-bene.org/
org: http://evolt.org/
french org: http://pompage.net/


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