It’s Raining Bleach

Sometimes living on a second floor apartment really sucks.  Sandwiched between the first floor and the third floor, you get the best of both worlds…plus we’re right above the laundry room.  While our first floor neighbor is pretty cool, our third floor neighbors are highly unpleasant.  Not only do I get to hear their nightly sexcapades (I am soooo grateful for an iPod with ear buds), but they have a small child who likes to run, scream, cry, and jump up and down like he’s imitating a heard of elephants.  Plus, on weekends they have fiestas in which they blare Spanish music…LOUDLY!!!!  Even the iPod can’t cover that up.

Banging on the ceiling with a stick has been effective thus far, and I try to be loving and kind whenever I see these people.  But tonight they pushed the limit.  While Sarah and I were entertaining a friend rockin’ out on our Playstation, a smelly substance can streaming down our porch from the upper level.  On further investigation, I discovered it was BLEACH.  Instead of pouring it down the drain or flushing it down the toilet, our third floor neighbors dumped it OVER the side of the balcony hitting our porch directly.

Maddy the innocent victim of the bleach attack.

I opened the screen door to investigate and my little Maddy slipped through my legs and got bleach all over her face.  She ran around the apartment screeching and yelping.  In the melee, Cassie managed to get out onto the porch as well.  I called her in and she was fine.  Poor Maddy had to have water repeatedly dumped on her head to cleanse her of the bleach.  She seems alright now though.

As I fretted over my dog, Sarah went upstairs to confront our neighbors, who were fairly rude.  I think they were meaner than she let on, but being a social worker she’s used to dealing with difficult situations.  They claimed not to have poured bleach off the porch and would never do such a thing.  Well, I know the guy underneath us didn’t throw it up and there’s no one else up there….so unleash we’re having a bout of acid rain ONLY affecting our porch…I think she’s lying.

On Monday, I am going to call the rental office to complain about our neighbors.  I hate to do things like that, but I don’t want to risk our or the dogs’ health.  What if we’re all sitting on the porch the next time the bleach comes raining down?  Sigh.

According to Sarah and Julie, our neighbor poured STRAIGHT UNDILUTED BLEACH onto our porch probably because earlier in the evening we tapped on the ceiling to ask them to turn down their music.  We’ve talked to them about it before but they pretended only to speak Spanish, which is ironic since they seem to scream perfectly at their young child in English.  Grrr…I know we want to be Christ-like in this situation–it’s just so hard to be kind to people who deliberately do things to ruin your property and hurt yourself or your family (or your little furry family members)!

Please just pray that God intervenes in this situation, that we all eventually stop smelling like bleach, and that both of the dogs will be OK.  Thanks for letting me vent my frustration into the blogosphere!