My writing week 3 (48)

Hi all,

I have a new article up on Divine. This one is about my father’s time in residential care. He had dementia.

I looked on track to do a bit of writing last week, but constant electrical storms had me turning off my computer just as I was about to start writing. When I lived in Sydney my flat was struck by lightning and half the wiring had to be replaced, so I am can justify my concern of unplugging valued electrical items during storms.

My noisy neighbours also distracted me from writing. Their teenage son, who lives in the garage, was playing his doff doff music on Tuesday and after I went next door and my doorbell ringing was ignored, I went back into my backyard and I screamed – not yelled, the whole street would have heard my complaint – over the fence for him to turn it down, get some headphones or cease because the bass noise just flowed through my house and was driving me mad. Much to my surprise, the noise ceased.

I then decided to attack the problem from another direction, by attempting to soundproof my writing area. I called up a builder and he came and had a look. He reckoned it would cost $1000 just for the glass alone if I was to double glaze the room’s window. Probably $2000 all up, but would it reduce the noise by much considering the house’s wooden walls? I decided to experiment by getting a piece of pine board ($95) cut that covered the room’s 180 by 130 cm window and seeing how much sound it blocked.

After a very sweaty afternoon (remember the above mentioned thunderstorms) and much colourful language directed at a drill that’s trigger kept on sticking, I installed the window cover, using plastic turn buttons to hold it in temporarily in place. But since then, nearly a week, no noise has come from next door. I have seen the kid once in the backyard. Perhaps he is using headphones. I have removed the cover while I wait for the noise to return.

This week I need to write another article for Divine. I have the ideas and most of the information is in my head, so it should be fairly easy to write. I also will finish reading the last few pages of a novel I have been critiquing and send its author a final critique. I also hope to finish the first draft of a novella and start editing it before sending it off to be critiqued. But as I continually find, life is always throwing up obstacles to my plans.

Graham.