Noise.

Some days, I despair at the amount of noise surrounding me in everyday life - peace seems almost impossible to attain. If it isn't lawnmowers or weedwhackers, it's radios and yelling. My neighbours are bellowers and arguers. Even out in the garden, they argue over where to place a plant and how deeply - I've sat in our gazebo and had giggling fits over some of the things they argue about - they have the same iron will, and determination to be right, and there are times when it sounds like the Monty Python skit - "Argument:"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teMlv3ripSM

My neighbours seem to thrive on the conflict - for the listener, particularly if one is feeling at all stressed, it can be tiresome. If I'm in a good mood, it's patently ridiculous, and funny; if I'm not, it's maddening. We have privacy fencing and hedging all along the property line, but I've had times where I've wanted to sail a paper airplane over with the message: "You're both right, or you're both wrong, either way, could you please observe 5 minutes of silence, to give the rest of us a break?"

Today, I had to come indoors, I couldn't stand it, one set of parents is also out there, so we have two more people arguing. It's never about anything important, it's just an endless quibbling, and refusal to give an inch over anything. It works for them, and it's beyond my control.

So much of life is bearable or not, depending upon my own outlook and mood. I always have choices. I can garden in the front when they're in the back, or vice versa. I can play in the side garden on the other side of my house. I can go indoors, I can go out with a friend. I'm not trapped, I'm not helpless. It's my choice how much I allow this to affect me.