The Final Straw

Yesterday morning sort of iced the cake on this whole "moving into the RV" project. While I have dreamed of living in an RV full time for a while, this current endeavor really began as a result of being woken up too many times in the middle of the night by noise from my next-door neighbor.

I live in an 80-year-old three-story walk-up on Davis Islands (DI) in Tampa, FL. I live on the top floor and have a great view of the Port of Tampa. The building is very well managed and has been updated, but it still has 80-year-old insulation between the units (or at least, very thin insulation) and voices seem to travel all too well. The only common wall is the bedroom wall and for some reason my neighbor likes to talk and entertain in his bedroom all night long or come home drunk and start calling people on the phone in the middle of the night. I was also disturbed by the loud living of the previous tenant, so I admit I'm part of the problem. I sleep at night, it's that simple. And I am a light sleeper, so it doesn't take much to wake me up. I can live with the white noise of the port, even the train whistles, but voices on the other side of the wall seven feet away wake me up and keep me awake.

So I go to bed every night with earplugs because I never know when my neighbor may start talking, etc. in his bedroom. The problem with that is even the squishy kind aren't the most comfortable things to wear. And they tend to fall out in the middle of the night, which completely negates their effectiveness. Finally, and this was the clincher for me yesterday morning, I overslept my alarm clock because I couldn't hear it. I had turned it down so low because HE, my neighbor, had responded to my complaints of his noise by saying my alarm clock was loud. I wasn't late for work, but I am not going to risk oversleeping my alarm again because of all this.

I've considered the pros and cons of this apartment and the single biggest pro is the view. I have loved that from the beginning and still do. I will miss it, but as I've said in an earlier post, I can always come back to DI and hang out down by the channel. Other positives about this apartment include the privacy of being three flights up, the relative safety of DI, the great apartment management, and the proximity to my work. The thing is, I've lived in other places that have been private, safe, have great management and been close to work, so all those things aren't unique to this apartment.

Regardless of where I go, I just cannot see staying here - with any view, at any price. Nothing this apartment offers me will offset the fact that I cannot count on getting a good night's sleep here.