I live on a busy street. There is no getting around this fact. The constant sound of cars passing 24 hours a day is something that you tell yourself you can live with when apartment hunting. You think to yourself, “a one-bedroom for under $800 a month in an OK neighborhood? Where do I sign?” The truth is that I have learned to live with it; I’ve actually grown to like it. The white noise provides a comfort; almost a false sense of security that puts my mind at ease when those creepy images pop into my head. Maybe it is a news story of a family getting murdered in a random apartment a particularly intense episode of Law & Order: SVU, or a home security system commercial where an abusive ex-boyfriend busts in a door, whatever it is, it makes me feel vulnerable; a lone defenseless man just waiting in his apartment all alone, just ripe for a home invasion. But then, I hear the cars and I think, “No one will rob me with all these cars going by, that’s just crazy.”
The other thing about this busy street I live on is the street parking. Both sides of this street are lined with parked cars. Because I live in a mixed income neighborhood, the cars can range from a nice Lexus SVU to a rusted out Dodge Neon. Since I have lived here, there hasn’t been any vandalism or busted out windows that I have seen; again, who would risk it, it a busy street.
Here’s your tip: If you own a light blue 1993 Geo Metro, you don’t need to install the most sensitive car alarm in the world… your car is fine.
This car seemed to be parked right outside my window every night. I will be just about ready to fall asleep and BAM, a semi will drive by and “HONK, HONK, HONK!” Here is the other thing about car alarms; never in my life have I seen anybody do anything when a car alarm goes off. There is no man with a baseball bat running out his front door, looking side to side, as if to catch the person that would dare touch his car. The alarm just goes off for 3 minutes, loud as can be, and then shuts off. If I thought for one second that a car alarm would actually be a deterrent for someone willing to break into a car on a busy street, that would be one thing, but even if someone was breaking into a car, no one would probably do anything about it. We, as people, ignore alarms all the time. Whenever an alarm goes off we, as a culture, just assume that it is broken. The door alarm at a clothing store goes off and an employee 9 times out of 10 will just wave you on and say, “Oh, go ahead, this thing is always acting up.” or they won’t say anything at all as if they didn’t even hear it. The smoke detector may go off and your first impulse is to take the battery out. This is who we are; you don’t need a car alarm! I wish you could get fined for having a sensitive car alarm, but until that day, just know that your neighbors hate your guts. Your car is fine!
I have always found it interesting how people draw attention to themselves. Some people just wear oddly colored outfits and people dye their hair blue. Some people spend their life in the gym to get a beautiful body and then pierce their nose for good measure. But most people however, don’t do anything radical but simply find interesting things about themselves to bring up when they need attention or want to stand out in a social situation. It could be as simple as stating an opinion on a hot-topic issue, “Call me crazy, but I think that Bozo the Clown should run for office… really, I mean look at all he has to offer: big shoes, red nose, frilly collar. I mean think of how great this country would be if we had a Grand March out of the capital building everyday… maybe a little pie in the face? I mean really… who’s with me on this?” When this fails, most people go for the ailments.
