The three B's of being a double N, and what took place in our neighborhood on New Years Eve.
Three words Booze, Bonfire and Boneheads, your first clues about our Nuisance Neighbor.
New Years Eve 2007 James and I went to Hooters with friends of ours from James' work. We get together frequently. We had dinner together and had a nice time, shared stories of what we did at Christmas, what plans we might have coming up and just had some laughs in general. Afterward James and I headed home, he had worked that day and was/is scheduled to work New Years Day through this coming Sunday. He works 12 hour shifts, so when he is on day shift he starts his day around 4 a.m. with that in mind he did not plan to stay up to ring in the New Year. His plan was to nap on the couch, I was going to make pie crusts for pies I was making the next day. I planned to wake James up just before midnight so we could watch the ball drop together, get my first kiss of the New Year and then we'd go to sleep.
For the most part our evening went as planned. I had anticipated there could be several parties going on in the neighborhood, possibly noisy, that's okay these houses are well built and insulate us from much of the outside noise. I support the right of our neighbors to throw parties and make merry, live and let live. I expected our dogs to be a little freaked out for the night due to fireworks, it isn't bad, mostly Daisy just refused to go outside, eventually she did though.
There was only one party in the neighborhood that I could tell, less than I expected. It was the neighbor behind our house, we share half our back yard fence with them. It looked like they had a large crowd over and were having a very good time. I think they may of been smoking some meats and grilling, they may have had a bon fire, and I don't know what they were drinking but they were enjoying something. I figured it was a large crowd because there isn't a lot of parking in our neighborhood on the street. They had a few cars parked in the driveway a few in the back yard and side of their home and some out on the main road that goes past our neighborhood. One of the trucks parked in the back yard served as the sound system for the evening. I was surprised by their taste in music at one point, I hadn't expected this crowd to be into this but I'm pretty sure I heard them cranking Neil Diamond from that truck.
Well it was all good fun in the neighborhood until just before midnight, a few minutes before the ball would drop we started hearing someone shooting what we thought was a rifle. It made James come-to and pop up from his nap on the couch. Guns being fired sounds much different than firecrackers being set off, we both looked out back to see what was going on and make sure we really did hear someone firing a gun. They were, we saw it, that was just too much. James called the sheriff and got out his video camera who knew at Christmas that would come in so handy, I never thought we'd be using the night filming setting to capture morons firing guns. But he got a clear video of them shooting it off over the road that goes past our neighborhood and into the orchard across the street.
It was really kind of shocking. They kept that up for a good 25-30 minutes; time enough for James to film them several times over, time enough for us to see several of the other neighbors near us checking this out from the view in the cul-de-sac, time enough for our badge and gun toting neighbor to radio his dispatch and light a fire under the sheriffs department letting them know this was no mistake it was gun fire not fireworks. So the sheriffs showed up fairly quickly after the neighbor radioed into his dispatch. The deputies found out what they could from us in the cul-de-sac and headed over to NN's place. The sheriffs had two cars on site which meant four officers. They questioned the neighbor and his guests, denials were made and crushed, considering the drunkards hadn't thought to pick up the casings. The sound system/truck was searched despite the owners protest, which was legal since the owner was caught in a bold face lie. The primary resident of the home was questioned regarding any weapons in the home, he tried to deny entry to the home but caved when the sheriffs assured him they could obtain what they required for lawful entry if he did not invite them in. At least one shotgun was found in the truck/sound system the barrel was hot and the casings were all around the vehicle... at least one rifle was found inside the home it was cold though so unused that evening. The deputies made their point, it is indeed a felony to discharge a weapon in the way they did and the party goers and residents were lucky to be left with a warning and no one being booked for the evenings accommodations at the local drunk tank/jail. The deputies from what we understand tried to impress upon NN that the house party was fine but that all in attendance were smashed and would need to sleep it off there. It was implied that license plates were recorded and the deputies intended to return for a check up. It was suggested that it was time to wind things down, kill the fire, lower the volume on the truck/sound system and maybe think about moving the party inside the home.
By this time it was past 1 a.m., I certainly had hoped it would quiet down a little. I was far from being ready or able to sleep at this point but James desperately needed to get to sleep though since he needed to be up again and headed to work in just a couple hours. We gave it a shot trying to grab a nap on the couches in the living room. I tried to unwind watching some of the Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years Eve Party, I caught Fergie, Akon, Will I Am, Natasha B and some others... I wasn't unwinding much though. Unwinding seemed a little like trying to put toothpaste back in the tube.
What a night, the neighbor behind our house previously thought to be quiet and relatively harmless has now earned himself the nick name Nuisance Neighbor, at least in our home.
The next day when the story had been told to coworkers and friends, I mentioned that if there were ever a "next time" not only would the video camera come out but my Christmas presents the serious "reach out and touch someone" telephoto lens and digital camera with night shooting capabilities. I'd be doing my best to take mug shots should it ever happen again. A friend asked what I'd do should any of the ammunition be sent this direction and without missing a beat my reply was I'd return fire. However, I certainly hope the only thing I ever shoot a person with is a camera.
Well that wraps up the story of our New Years Eve and the excitement it brought, since then we've had a nice New Years Day, 2008 is off to a good start for us and we hope for you as well.
See you later allig8tors.
