All that commotion for nothing

I know you all are wondering what happened with band practice this week...

Nothing.  A big fat nothing.  Talk about being left hanging!  Chase called the officer who came by last week to let him know what time practice would start and ask him to come by if possible or call if not.  We never heard anything.  We also obviously didn't have the neighbors call the cops, but they didn't appear to be home for the evening.

Thank you for your comments; I now feel much better about my neighbors!  You all are right; this problem we are having has very little to do with noise.  I'm not sure what their motivation is but suspect it has more to do with disliking us and being unwilling to put up with any minor annoyances that one would typically accept.  As I said in the last post, Chase had remained friendly with the male half of the couple (we rarely see the female half; I swear she's on her way to becoming agoraphobic), but I did not.  Things didn't end well with us, partially because of how I handled what was, to me, an uncomfortable situation.  So there may be a bit of resentment on his part, though in the last few years we have called hello across the yard.

This past weekend we opted to utilize nap time to do a bit of rearranging in the basement.  The drums have been set up in the corner all of this time.  It happens to be the corner on the side of the house facing Them.  We moved the drums so they were on the back wall, hopefully muffling some of the noise.  Chase went outside while the drummer beat on the drums at practice and said he thinks it's quieter.  I can assure you it is not quieter inside because the noise now bounces off the wall, but I'm more than happy to accept a bit of extra noise if it gets Them off our backs.  If nothing else the cops will be able to see that we are making an effort.

Here's the Before.  One of the big speakers is outside of the picture on the right, pointing towards this wall.  

As you can see in this After photo, the speaker is now facing the other direction and the drums have been moved.  In fact, all speakers now face the other direction.

You can see the drums have been moved to the back wall.

Here's a view of the basement from the music area.  The drums are on the far left and sound louder on the inside of the house because they are bouncing off that wall right in the center of the picture.  You can see some kid toys on the right hand side.  The kids like to come down and play during practice, maybe sing a little in the mike, or, in Jordan's case, bang on the drums a bit.  This is another reason I can tell you that practice is not terribly loud; I wouldn't let the kids come down here if it were.

Practice should pay off tonight as they are playing tonight at a place they've not played before.  That's always exciting.  Even more exciting is the fact that I have a babysitter for the evening and am going out to hear them.  I am beyond ready for a little time as an adult, particularly since they are playing again tomorrow night (leaving me a single mom for most of the weekend).

In other news:  I apologize for my recent absence.  It has been pretty here lately so we've spent more time outside.  I also just got an iPhone and have been busy playing with it:)  Jordan loves the app that lets her trace her letters.  Or rather, try to trace her letters.  At the moment they mostly all end up looking like O.  Still, it's a handy tool for distraction and education.  

Have a happy weekend!