We finally put some furniture on our back porch and I’ve been enjoying sitting out there sometimes to work, or in the evening.
Except I also don’t enjoy it. Because first of all, I get bit all to shit by mosquitoes, they love me, and nothing keeps them away. And secondly, there’s construction right over the back fence, which is very noisy and ugly sometimes they play very noisy music. And finally, the neighbors to one side really love playing top 40 hits on the radio in their backyard. Like, pop songs on the radio, with ads and everything. They’re out there all the time playing that stuff and I hate it, and I can hear it even with earplugs.
So it usually isn’t very long before the irritation of these things outweighs the pleasantness of the sunshine and trees and lizards, and I’m driven back inside where I can fully control the environment.
I often wonder in such situations because it seems very difficult for me to ever fully enjoy anything: are other people better able to block out things like this? Do you not notice them, or not mind them? Or do they only ever actually happen to me? I’ve never been clear on whether I seem to be more constantly plagued by irritants because I’m uniquely unlucky in the volume of irritants I’m exposed to, or because I’m just overly sensitive to them. I always assume the latter, but maybe it’s both.
Anyway, here are pretty pictures of my porch:
Accismus 
Mosquitos are extreme irritants and ruin the outdoors for me in any situation where they are present. The music thing would drive me bonkers, too, and does when I’m in public and people play their music loud (or talk on their phones on speakerphone? in public? wtf people! nobody wants to hear your crap! you’re being rude and self-important and thoughtless about the people around you!). So I don’t think it’s just you.
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Thank you, I feel so validated.
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> are other people better able to block out things like this?
Sometimes. Mosquitoes drive me and Eleanor to distraction. We cannot enjoy anything with them around. Music if it’s close and louder than a lawnmower is distracting. Ads being played are the worst in any circumstance. Music that’s able to blend in with the sounds of a neighborhood is fine, ditto other’s conversations or children shrieking.
> Or do they only ever actually happen to me?
I don’t think we can rule this out.
Your porch is darling, and I’m SO pissed I’m not there this weekend 😦
You could screen in half of it, for bug season. However, knowing how E is similar to Grant, it is entirely within a child’s capability to smash through a screen.
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I KNOW, my mom even recently brought home bee-printed throw pillows for it! She did not know about your love for bees, it was simply a coincidence, but I thought it was providential. Well, they will still be here whenever you come.
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I tried to zoom in on them
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If you electrify the screen somehow, you solve the bug problem (doubly) and the escaping child problem.
I shake my fist at neighborhood noise all the time.Then I let my big deep-voiced yodeling dog out, sometimes with a little spite in my heart. Have you considered countermeasures like blaring Black Sabbath or Lou Reed’s inimitable “Metal Machine Music” at top volume in reciprocity?
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I have indeed considered it, and might yet do it!
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