Tuesday, July 03, 2018

I've got nothing for you. I'm a little preoccupied with this dog issue. Went down to the police department this morning to see if I could get any guidance.

6 comments:

  1. Capital of Texas RefugeeWednesday, July 04, 2018 3:33:00 AM

    About the last place where I had to operate the "modified mosquito repellent" array?

    I left it turned on non-stop for over three years.

    During that time, I no longer had problems with certain neighbors' dogs taking a crap anywhere near my door, which is why I installed the thing in the first place.

    The array consisted of a twelve outlet power strip stuffed full of "modified mosquito repellent" devices -- I only detuned them slightly so I would get a broader range of repelling frequencies, all of which were above 25 kHz.

    Dogs can apparently hear up to 60 kHz, in case you were wondering about that. Most humans only hear up to 22 kHz at best, although I had freakish hearing when I was younger and could hear up to 27 kHz, which means that despite being fairly old that I now have the hearing range of a 30-year-old.

    This is handy for not annoying the crap out of most people with my devices. An NE555 timer circuit like I've mentioned can usually crank out sound up to 100 kHz while remaining in spec, in case you were also wondering about that. :-)

    I've watched what happens when a dog gets near my "skeeter zapper" array -- the dogs whimper and do not want to be anywhere near it. If they're on a leash, they'll pull on the owner to get away from it, and if they're not, they'll run past it.

    Operating costs for the thing over the three years that I had it on probably amount to a buck or two -- I didn't notice any significant change in my power bill.

    Keep in mind that should you choose to use this kind of thing, the dog has plenty of options that include staying on the other side of the house away from it. As for the dog acting a little bit more deranged around its owner, perhaps the owner won't think the dog's behavior is cute anymore.

    But really what this gets to is how our neighbors really aren't very good at being neighbors.

    They're just people we're unfortunate enough to live next to, and in many cases we don't know them or we don't want to know them.

    The interesting thing about newer apartment buildings is that they appear to be built around the idea that lots and lots of sound-deadening stuff in the walls is a very, very good thing. In the old place, I hear hardly anyone unless the noise is coming through the doors, which are standard doors not made of anything special to stop noise. In the new place, I may on occasion hear a neighbor's washing machine going spastic, and there's occasionally a yipper dog who goes into fits of over-stimulation when anyone even walks near that apartment.

    Usually the yipper dog shuts up when I go inside, but if I'm going to have problems with the yipper dog, I've already found that there's an electrical socket right by the door. Despite having been stored for a while, my "skeeter zapper" array probably works just fine.

    I've walked past a few people's places and I've been shocked at the absurd amount of sound coming out of them, mostly because I can't hear it in my own place. It also probably helps that I have a few fans running.

    So I'll continue to rent here because at the worst, I can just move again and play "location lotto" for better results.

    BTW, speaking of shitty neighbors: SFGate -- "SF's appalling street life repels residents -- now it's driven away a convention".

    And the shitty unionized labor who probably to this day still fucks up vendors' equipment installations isn't much of a help ...

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  2. Yeah..... right now I'm trying to do everything by the book. People like this tend to be manipulators and will just make up shit.

    I just don't understand the risk reward scenario that is playing out in her head. I was resisting going harder on this girl because it makes you feel ugly inside to force someone to have their dogs vocal cords cut. And this girl refuses to put on a bark collar because she doesn't want to hurt fluffy. Wort case scenario they make her get rid of the dog. So I don't really get it. But she's got reality show diva princess written all over her.

    Re: San Fransisco. They had a brief moment when I thought they would reverse course with Mark Farel. But now that London Breeze has won, I only expect SF to get more baltimoreish. SF is now lost. I try my hardest to not go up there because it really is heart breaking.

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  3. I own a dog, from a breed with a hella deep, carrying, bark, that's BRED TO BARK at anything deemed possibly a threat. And you know what? It's not that hard to get him to shut up......so I mostly lack sympathy for folks like this.

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  4. Dwan - if the legal system works - I should eventually get in front of a judge where I need to sort of have clean hands. I can't fight my case if I've just done a bunch of retaliatory crap. But believe me....the things I fantasize about. Speaker power is quite cheap these days.

    Ruth! I couldn't wait for you to come back and comment. So - I found out that you are right. Google sat updates super quick now. It's already got my deck which was just finished in oct last year. Google sat is refreshing quite quickly these days. Street view - not as much. My place still has cars in front of it that I haven't owned for more than three years or more.

    Thanks for your encouraging words. People like this just make you feel super crazy. There are dogs in every other house around here and they all manage to figure out how to not let their dogs bark all the time.

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  5. Well, it's nice to know its not just my house that they're watching lol. Hadn't thought to check street view.....hah, there IS NO STREET VIEW of my road! To funny! I never noticed!

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  6. Capital of Texas RefugeeSaturday, July 07, 2018 1:48:00 PM

    So ... I met the neighbor's yipper dog and the neighbor.

    The neighbor is nice, and the dog is also nice once he gets to sniff you a bit.

    Once I was accepted by the little yipper dog, he only had a single YAP to say to me, which I think was Hello. :-)

    I told Little Mighty Dog hello back and he shut up while we were talking.

    He has not since yapped or yipped at me except once just to say hello while I was moving more stuff into the new place. Compared to before, he's incredibly non-talkative, which is actually a help.

    But what's triggering Little Mighty Dog is a dog that the owners haven't got under control very well who is in a nearby apartment building.

    There's still a use for the skeeter zapper, but it's going to have to be dialed down and aimed properly so I can use it near the little dog without annoying him too much. As long as I can keep the bigger dog from wanting to get anywhere near my patio, that should also keep the dog away from the other apartment, and the result should be some kind of enforced peace between the two dogs.

    Also, the new place has private garages so I can keep my vehicles off Google Satellite, and non-residents aren't allowed in past the security gates, so there's no Google Street View past them.

    It's also in a more conservative location than Miami-Dade, and soon I'll be moved out completely with a few weeks of iffy mobile broadband Internet before everything becomes more stable again. The warehouse area has already been moved along with about 80% of what was in the old place, so now what's left is about two to three cargo van loads and that's it.

    The new location is considerably smaller in terms of population, and so I probably won't be saying too much about the local area. They had a real 4th of July celebration with better fireworks than I'd have expected -- I think part of that is because I'm living next to a resort community now.

    Cuban coffee, however, is still available ... from actual Cubans. :-)

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