How has your life changed for the better in the past year and how do you
expect it to improve in the next 12 months?  This can include things like new
jobs, housing, friends or improved health or anything else you like.

85 responses total.

I make about $5000 more per year than I did 12 months ago. Otherwise, 
my life is remarkably the same. 

There is a very good possibility that my life will change significantly 
in the next 12 months. But then, isnt that always the case? 

i have had one of the worst years of my life. but it has changed my life for
the better, in that i've learned a lot of things "the hard way" and found a
lot out about myself. no, really. and that's about as specific as i can get.

Since 2000, I've been in a long slow slide into poverty.  I did have a 
full-time job in 2001, but was fired in August for no real fault of my 
own.  The holiday season I started a part-time job with 26 hours, 
which slid to about 15 hours after January of this year.  Everything 
has just barely been above minimum wage, and is by *no* means a living 
wage at all.  I am hoping things will improve, but it has been very, 
very bleak financially. 

Lumen, are you omitting something nice that happened in your life in the last
week or so?
Jim has progressed from having a house full of junk to having a house where
most of the junk has been either fixed or recycled to make room for a very
nice housemate (lucky on the third try).  He now has a 100' long electrical
conduit ready for upgrading his service, after several years of planning,
thanks to the digging skills of the housemate, and a yard full of vegetables
plants instead of weeds, and the closet project is done and you can walk
thorugh the kitchen and living room without tripping.  He hopes by this time
next year to still have the housemate and maybe one more, plus wired-in
electric heat at 1/4 the usual rate and more junk fixed or recycled.

The last year has unquestionably been the worst 12 month period of my 
life, with my wife filing for divorce.  The bad year will continue and 
probably wind up being a bad 15 months or so, ending around the end of 
this calendar year, whenever the divorce is finalized and I learn to 
deal with it.

I can't think of anything good that has happened in the last year, 
unless it's my brother's marriage (which hasn't affected me enough to 
matter) or his son surviving a car accident (which would have made the 
last year much worse as I am close to my nephew), or remaining 
employed.  But it's hard to consider these things as particularly 
good.  They didn't improve anything for me.

Whenever the bad year ends, anything that follows will be fine with 
me.  I expect that anything that follows will be wonderful by 
comparison.  I'm holding on and waiting for that to happen.

The past twelve months have been full of ups and downs, but things are getting
better.  Even during the icky spells, I had *something* worth remembering.
It's not worth getting into...  I have an online journal with archives if you
want to waste time reading that.  :)

Journal - http://www.angelfire.com/mi/sarahmichaela/journal.html
Archives - http://www.angelfire.com/mi/sarahmichaela/archives.html

resp:4  Yes, I thought about that.  Sarah is a wonderful joy in my 
life.  It is definitely wonderous, and has given my life meaning.  
However, I worry about providing for her.

This year (well, last fall) I finally burned out on pure software work, and
quit my job.  So this is career search and vacation year, which is quite a
change.  I'd been at my last job more than 8 years.

The past year has been a period of increasing work, increasing stress,
hoarding of wealth, and increasing taxes. We cut back to one car,
and since my current deployment moved downtown from the 'burbs we
take public transportation (the bus) to work.  (Actually that 
probably is a net loss of stress since the beginning of April as
I no longer have that horrible commute. I can zone out while I
mingle with the real people.)  My mandarin vocabulary and comprehension
is increasing as I work with a lot of chinese - I probably have
the voc/comp of an young child by now - have started to seriously 
consider studying it.  Actually loaded a mandarin course on my
laptop - much hilarity on the part of my co-workers - "The young
boy is on top of the table".  I score about 60% for a 1st grader
in comprehension although I am functionally illiterate with the
exception of being able to count and conduct financial transactions.
(plus I can recognize and pronounce the names of emperors for 
the last 2000 years...)

Who knows what the next 12 months will bring, that is too far in
the future to plan.

Well, the last 12 months have been stressful, no doubt about it, what with
Gareth going off to join the Air Force, and Rhiannon announcing her pregnancy,
and then Bruce's job uncertainties, ending in his being laid off, BUT...
I'm very proud of Gareth, and Rhiannon asked me to be with her when her son
was born, which is an experience which I will always treasure, and I do adore
little Griffin... Can't think of anything really good about Bruce's not
working, but on the whole, the plusses balance out the minuses.

My life is in flux - I am not sure if I am better or worse from splitting with
Gary - in many ways, I am better - but sometimes, it can feel worse.  I tend
to go with the side of better though.  I am about 30 pounds lighter.  I seem
to be a bit more focused.  I am better able to handle my family right now.

12 months?  Try six months.

In the last six months:
  - Gained a daughter.
  - Lost my mom.
  - Bought and moved to a new house.
  - Became, with my brothers, responsible for the care of my father and
    sister.
  - Lots of savings vanished, partly into new house, partly into living
    expenses during several months when I didn't have enough time to
    do any work.

Nothing much happened in the six months before that.

My life for the past year has been horrible....

-Erik's brother moved in with us
-New Job (which I hate now)
_Erik lost his job
_Erik's sister moved in with us 
_Erik cheated on me cause he was bored at home all day
_Erik and I broke up
_Moved to a new place
_Cat got killed
_Horrible car trouble...

I figure good things must be around the corner...

I had a wonderful year.

I had the opportunity to re-establish a relationship with
both my brother and sister, who both moved in with me.

I took some time off to re-think my career options.

An old but comfortable relationship that wasn't really working
ended and I've met someone new.  Change is good.

I no longer have to live with that damn cat.

I'm getting more exercise.

I'm thinking positive.

(Sorry, couldn't resist.)

This response has been erased.

I have three times as many ride-worthy bikes as I did a couple of weeks ago
and much more space in my yard (but way less in Jim's garage).  And finally
a pentium computer with all my files working on it (given to us 3 years ago).
Some nice new neighbors.  No health problems, no wealth problems, no relative
problems - I should keep reminding myself how many things are not going wrong.
(So what if I only got five hours of sleep partly due to the neighbors' dogs
barking almost continuously from 1:30 to 2:00.)

Indeed.

Sindi, I have an idea of something you can do about barking dogs in the 
middle of the night. Get some ear plugs. I am going to get some myself 
to deal with my 6am bulldozer problem. 

i wonder why they bother you but not the owners of the dogs. if it's due to
the fact that they aren't sleeping when you are i'd find some creative loud
as shit activities to do when they are sleeping. a bulldozer's temporary, dogs
aren't .. or are they ..

<evil grin>

The two dogs seem to be gone (at least they were a couple of nights ago) which
leaves one pitbull that only barks for a few minutes.  Earplugs hurt and keep
me awake, I have tried them.  Apparently owners of barking dogs like to hear
the dogs barking at all hours.

I'm very susceptible to noise at night.  I'm a light sleeper and often 
have trouble getting to sleep.  Any sharp sound will wake me up.  I 
used to keep a fan going in my bedroom all night as a white noise 
generator.  I tried a white-noise generator machine that played sounds 
like frogs, the sea, etc. but it didn't work for me.  

Frogs, the sea, etc, are very far from being white noise. Try leaving on
an FM radio tuned between stations. 

It was called a white noise generator machine, or something similar to 
that.  I guess the sounds it played were the sort of sounds that help 
people to sleep.  I know that's not really white noise.  My fan was 
white noise.

Surf works best for me.

Air conditioners make loud white noise.  Around here it is difficult to find
any portion of the FM spectrum that is between stations.  You have to get a
receiver that requires an antenna and remove the antenna and avoid local
stations.

Bull Dozers are temporary but they have been out there m-f since April 
and probably wont be finished with the road work until November. 

I used to live in a neighborhood that I am sure would cause Sindi to 
curl up and die if she ever had to live there. Barking dogs in the 
middle of the night were not the noise problem. It was frat boys 
barking like dogs after drinking that were the noise problem. They had 
a bull horn too in order to amplifly their voices. Every weekend the 
whole neighborhood was littered with those little plastic cups that 
people get for their keg parties, beer cans and bottles, pizza boxes 
with flyers attached to them, etc. They would shoot off fire crackers 
every night in the summer from dusk to about 5am when they usually went 
to bed. That kind of bugged me but only because my dogs are scared of 
fire crackers. Living in that neighborhood is probably why I always 
think of Sindi's problems as beeing...well...trivial. 

When the students around here do that sort of thing I like to send Damon out
to practice revely (sp) on his trumpet at about 6:30am.  Unfortunately STeve
always manages to stop him before he actually gets out.  Sigh

Good thing, since most of your neighbors are probably as bothered as you are
by the noise that a few students make.  Reveille?

wake up

Most of the area is student and most of them are involved with the party. 
I think the few families on our block would applaud him.

It probably wouldnt bother the students and getting into a power 
struggle with them is also futile. I'll bet calling the cops doesnt 
help much either. But, if you are a person who values quiet in the 
mornings, why move into a student area? I mean, it isnt like it is a 
big secret that the students are loud at night. 

STeve grew up in this house, won't move anywhere else.  I have talked to them,
sometimes you can reason with them other times they're too drunk for
reasoning.  Those times I call the cops.  Usually only have to call once for
them to get the idea to keep it down.  Other groups you can call every party
and sometimes more than once a night.  If the cops have to come out a second
time in one night or the third time to one house arrests will be made.  That
usually takes care of that house.  Often that is enough for the whole area
since they talk to each other and word gets out.  Other times it has to be
done a house at a time and takes 2-4 before word gets around.

Since we moved back into the house last August I have called the police twice.
Once for a loud party and once for a hit and run in front of our house.  I
had to yell out the back door once for them to be quiet or I would call. 
Either we are getting a better quality student lately or it just has been too
cold for them to move the parties outside.

Their have been other times it was loud but since it was a weekend and I
hadn't gone to bed yet and Staci wasn't complaining (she has the bedroom
nearst the worst area for parties) I didn't do anything.  Would have if it
continued until I went to bed or Staci had complained I would have called (if
she hadn't cussed them out through the window first).

Yes there are students in the area, but it is a family neighborhood first.
Our street is mostly families or owner occupied.  The biggest problems are
the side street, the sorority down a block one way and the apartments/frat
houses at the other end of the street.  The students houses have come into
being as older couples have retired and sold the big house to the campus
rental companies.  I am lucky that my kids are older and usually stay up later
than me.  I pity the two families down the block that have small children
(even when we lived there when they were younger mine could sleep through
almost anything).

I guess the moral of the story is to really be careful when buying a 
house. I dont really feel sorry for people who choose to live in noisy 
neighborhoods even if they have small children. One nice thing about it 
is that you know no one will dare complain about the noise the kids 
make during the day! 

i'd rather hear a barking dog than some welfare mom
screaming at her twitching hyperactive spawn

I didn't let my kids scream during the day.  If they got too noisy they had
to come in.  Didn't have to make them come in very often.  When STeve's mother
bought the house there were no students in that area, it was totally families.
The students encrouched over the years as the older people sold the house and
moved out.  STeve grew up being told that it was the "family estate" and would
be his someday.  That day came on January 19, 2001 when his mother died.

I can understand the college students wanting to live in off campus housing
rather than in dorms but they need to understand that off campus housing comes
with community obligations that are different than on campus housing.

I live in terror that one of them is going to come speeding down the street
at the wrong time and hit one of the elemenatry kids getting on the bus or
walking home.  I have seen them come through there at over 50 mph, the street
is 4 blocks long!  I have almost been hit myself numerous times and I watch
for the idiots, little kids don't especially if they are playing.

I can hardly wait until tomorrow night.  The elementary school is having their
annual Ice Cream Social from 6-8 and will have the entire block closed off.
They constantly go the wrong way down the one way side street I doubt they
will pay attention to a saw horse in the road.

It doesn't matter where you live or who you are, you should be considerate
of your neighbors and obey the laws.  You don't do 50 in a 4 block residential
area and you don't drive the wrong way on a one way street (at over the speed
limit) just because you don't want to drive around the block.  You don't make
so much noise that the neighbors need to call the cops.  If you get drunk
enough to be sick, don't puke over the fence into a neighbor's yard.  Don't
throw your trash over the neighbor's fence.  Don't drive your car into the
fence and knock it down.

I grew up in that neighborhood too, on a block where the fraternity count
increased dramatically after my parents bought the house.  Things did indeed
get much quieter once the police started enforcing the noise ordinance, and
the University started going after fraternities that got lots of complaints.
Some of the neighbors also started inviting the fraternity people to parties
at their houses to meet the non-fraternity neighbors, and that seemed to help
some too.

So how are you going to make these UofM students understand that living 
off campus has more community responsibilities than living on campus? 
If someone gets along with most of their neighbors but one neighbor is 
always calling the cops on them, what kind of conclusion to you suppose 
they will come to? Steve's thought of inviting the fraternity people to 
parties is a good one. It is harder to be thoughtless if you know the 
neighbors. 

*shrug* You will have a hard time keeping the students out of the 
neighborhood. That is just basic economics. If forces are driving them 
into the neighborhood and those forces stay the same, you might even 
find that more and more families move out and more and more students 
move in. I think that if I had kids, I wouldnt choose to live in a 
neighborhood with a lot of nighttime noise but would instead opt for a 
neighborhood with a lot of daytime kid noise. If I were a college 
student, I would choose to live in a neighborhood with a lot of other 
college students because loud parties are tolerated more in such 
neighborhoods. Eventually, you might find that the police department 
stops coming out quickly for noise violations in that neighborhood.  

Being that they are 18-22 years old and often from very sheltered 
suburban upper middle class homes, your young neighbors just are going 
to be wild. Sometimes, if you have a friendly relationship with them, 
you can explain why they should slow down around the school. I am sure 
they arent horrible people, they are just young and thoughtless. They 
probably still think that the reason they shouldnt speed is because a 
cop might get them not because they might hurt some kid. They dont have 
kids so they arent in that mindset where they think about children's 
safety. 

What neighborhood is this, out of curiosity?

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss