Plotting My Own Extinction

One of the backyards which abuts mine is having a party today, an exceedingly loud and incredibly annoying one. It started around 11:00 am with a boom box at a volume loud enough to rattle my windows. I went outside and yelled through the fence for the owner to turn it down but unsurprisingly, he didn't hear me. There are at least forty people in a small backyard already packed with party equipment.

The owner moved in recently. He has the largest gas barbecue grill I've ever seen plus several smaller, Weber-type ones, a smoker, a large concrete charcoal pit, giant heat lamp, picnic tables and benches, and has apparently cornered the market on beer. Since I thought I couldn't make a nuisance call to the police until 10:00 pm, I decided to calm my frazzled and offended nerves with a walk on the beach.

When I got there, the beach was closed, cyclone fencing separating it from the parking lots. Apparently it will remain closed until the end of September because of the America's Cup. Are they serious? Who closes a public beach for July, August and September? I am sensing a trend. A few very wealthy people are sailing their luxury boats in San Francisco Bay, so the beaches are off-limits to the plebeians. The logic escapes me. I wouldn't mind if they had closed it to protect an endangered species, but the super-wealthy are not threatened. Everyone else is.

 

While next door, we have over-privileged people growing increasingly loud as they imbibe more and more beer, without regard for the misery they are causing their neighbors. They are making the construction workers seem almost quiet by comparison, or at least sober. I think the Dodo had the right idea when it became extinct.