The windows have been shut

     Now I can make up for all my ranting about the Asian neighbor man and his midnight breaks. (I think he works in one of the 24 hour companies).  Ever since I made my disgust felt (read the past posts in April), he has kept that particular window shut.  The curtains are still sheer, but I also, after my posts, started focusing on getting a life and stopped looking/listening/minding the neighbor! So what if anywhere from 9pm to 2pm some girl picked up from somewhere is in there. It doesn't mean I already condone this activity. It's just that I have come to realize things could be worse, like...

    Having next door neighbors with full houses and many cars; people who like to party in their garages frequently; noisy people; houses with stinky noisy dogs!  I am grateful that, nobody lives across us; next to us, there is just a couple with one child and they are very very quiet we don't even know when they're there (the ones who give me fruits from their yard); and the other side, also a practically empty house. Nobody next to us has a pet.  As for this man, the subject of my anger just when I started this blog; well, he is now more discreet.  Also, the house is empty during the day; the maid is quiet.  Perhaps it was she who advised him to shut the windows.

   I grew up in an apartment strip, in a military base, where I got used to the noise levels of next-door neighbors. Now, even if we are still in a small house, I'm not so sure I can tolerate a noisy neighborhood. I appreciate the classical piano music coming from across the street, I appreciate that we are on a relatively quiet street.  I don't even mind when the wind carries the Wednesday, Friday and Saturday Jams from Paseo to here.  It's a pleasant place.

   Now I understand why, before leaving our Metro Manila apartment, our neighbor across the street worried about "who will move into your place".  It can become worrisome, after all, over there, next to us, a family stocking and selling LPG tanks out of their back laundry area moved in.

  How easily I had forgotten.  How easy to feel spoiled by a wholesome, pleasant Sesame Street-ness down here.