My former arch-nemesis is gone. The sign shop and tattoo parlor that moved in downstairs from me a couple of years ago packed up and moved out yesterday.

They were my arch nemesis because when they first moved in they had a band that practiced loud amplified music almost every evening and threw loud late-night parties (sometimes until past 3am) just about every week, even on work nights. At 2am on work nights I would often be awakened by the sign shop operating its machinery. When I complained, they responded that maybe city life wasn’t cut out for me and that it’s no different than the train down at the bottom of the bluff, and if I can’t deal with it I should move to thee suburbs. (Sorry, but I was living here first and the trains were never anything like this.)

One night one of the parties got so loud that all of my glassware was clanking together, my windows were rattling, and my room humidifier began walking across the living room floor. I reported them then, as I had many times, and the landlord told me he gave them a final warning.

That was all about a year ago.

Since then, I found that everyone downstairs were actually very nice people. And we learned to co-exist. The frequency of their parties cut way back, the ended them at a decent hour, band practice was leess often, and they found ways to make thee music less instrusive to the neighbors. Meanwhile I adapted by simply staying out on First Friday nights, so they would have their First Friday parties without it annoying me.

It turns out they weren’t so bad after all, once they adapted to the fact that they were in a residential building and I adapted to their schedule.

So, where once I would have celebrated them moving out, instead I find myself now hoping that it’s because they found a better location and not because they have gone under.

Now I nervously await finding out what will be downstairs from me next.