I’d been waiting for the day to be right for me to talk to my neighbors about late-night party noise. And then today happened, and I realized we were here.

I visited all the houses around and rang all the doorbells. With one exception, the answer I got was “I didn’t hear a thing.” One neighbor said, “I would never have a problem with it. I’ve lived here for 30 years; I play my music loud; you guys have fun.” That’s what my neighborhood is good at. One person wants to come to a party. I think another is hiding a dead body in their apartment.

The exception was from the neighbors who called the cops the first time (not last time). They said the problem was people on the porch talking. That night, they talked to the porch-talkers, who quieted down, but an hour later it was just as bad, so they called the cops. They said that even when they came down to talk to the people on the porch, they couldn’t hear the noise of the party.

I collected email addresses, and distributed my contact information. The bottom-line, as far as I can tell, is everything’s cool, but there needs to be a new rule: keep it really down on the porch! I might place a limit on the number of people who can be out on the porch at a time too (any thoughts on that?).

My next Rocky party will be February sometime.