Will This Work?

When I last left off, the lady downstairs was banging banging banging.

Well, the next morning I walked out to check the mail and I saw that a representative from the Golden Police Department had left a business card with a note on back:

Received noise complaint on 12/14/2006 at 1:05AM

The interesting thing is that the officer didn’t knock last night, so I’m guessing they didn’t take the complain seriously or assumed that it had stopped before they got here.

I talked with Dad and he talked with Laurel Property Services. Then I talked with Laurel Property Services. I was very disappointed by how Laurel decided to deal with the situation. Their suggestion was to call the police if she banged again. Okaaaay.

I did some more thinking and talked to some more people. I finally decided to go talk to her, although somewhat reluctantly. The conversation went something like this:
Me: “So, there was some knocking last night.”
Her: “Yeah.”
Me: “And I’m trying to figure out why.”
Her: “You were noisy and woke me up.”
Me: “Okay. We’ll, I’ve tried to keep noise to a minimum. I’ve worked out in the living room when possible, but sometimes it’s not, and I’ve had my Uncle, who’s a carpenter come and install screws to help minimize the squeaking. That’s seemed to help a bit, at least from what I can hear. I don’t think there’s anything more I can do.”
Her: “Last year, Logan studied in the living room and that seemed to work pretty well.”
(My jaw figuratively dropped in my head; did she just say that?)
Me: “Have you tried calling Laurel?”
Her: “Yes, they said to call the police.”
(I found this part interesting…almost like Laurel is playing both sides)
Her, continuing: “I’ve been nice and haven’t called them all semester, but last night was just too much. I’ve been constantly late to work. Before you moved in, I was never late. I may lose my job because of this. ”
(Inner commentary: “One word lady: earplugs”)
Me: “Well, okay then. Thanks for your time.”

And I left. Did I just have this conversation? I called the non-emergency police number and informed them that I was having a dispute with my neighbor and would like an officer sent over. The dispatcher asked if I would be willing to go to mediation. “Sure!” I said, “Anything at this point.” She gave me the number for the Jefferson County Mediation. I gave them a call. The called back the next day and left a message. They seemed very nice. I’m going to call them tomorrow to get the ball rolling so that I can get this all figured out right when I get back.