Book Board Chat

Reading all the trials and tribulations of renting and living in apartments and condos makes me chuckle because here in SoCal we have what I call "condo houses". Real estate is crazy expensive out here and houses are built practically on top of each other. Even larger houses. I know some people who are in 4500+ square feet and they are still only about 20 feet from their next door neighbor. It's crazy. We live on a cul de sac so all the yards are pie shaped. We are far from the noise of the neighbor to our right, but the neighbor on the left is very close. Unfortunately, she is the pet lover of the street. She has 2 or 3 dogs and (sigh...) a pair of cockatoos. Not cockatiels (the cute, small ones) but cockatoos - the parrot-sized birds that are very intelligent and easily bored. They squawk and screech all day, and when the weather is nice she puts them out on perches on her patio. Unfortunately they quickly get bored and started screeching/screaming. The neighbors have shut themselves inside the house with the AC on, and I'm trying to get something accomplished and keep cool with all the doors and windows open so I get to hear the screeching, while she doesn't. She's a very sweet lady, but she tunes them out and can't understand why we get irritated. After a long day at work, when the sun is going down and the breeze is pleasant (and we're tired) I would really like to open our doors and windows, sit and enjoy a quiet dinner. That is very hard to do with those birds. She just doesn't get it.