Anecdotally, the world conspires against days off.

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Do we not all hope for peace and rest and silence on our days off? We work in a field that tests our mental resilience to intense and incessant sensory input for hours.

This is my afternoon off. I was looking forward to some peace before I head back into the trenches tonight. However, at this very moment, my neighbor is target-shooting with a high-caliber ballistic device. Simply put, he has a really big gun. A couple of years ago he admitted that the windows of his garage fell victim to the percussive force of that thing I call a member extension.

Every few minutes and at bone jarringly regular intervals... >Boom<. it like hitting the snooze-bar on alarm clock.>

I imagine those of you with small children face similar challenges on your days off. Or those of you with too many cats, or those of you who haven't disabled your landline.

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Mine is the neighbor that wakes up at the crack of dawn to mow his lawn.

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Mine is the neighbor that wakes up at the crack of dawn to mow his lawn.

Hire a Mariachi band to play at on his lawn at 6 AM.

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Specializes in Critical care.

I got woken up by a Girl Scout one weekend. Later found out we had already paid for cookies and she should​ have been delivering them, but didn't. We never saw our cookies or money and I was very grumpy that night at work.

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I got woken up by a Girl Scout one weekend. Later found out we had already paid for cookies and she should​ have been delivering them but didn't. We never saw our cookies or money and I was very grumpy that night at work.[/quote']

When the Girl Scouts ruin your day off, you know it's bad.

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Once upon a time, a car pulled over on the street right outside of my bedroom window. Two females got out and proceeded to kick, slap and punch each other while screaming, squealing and chasing each other around on my small lawn. I screamed out the window at them. They screamed back. And then they both got back in the car they came in and drove off together. I had been sleeping rather well up until then. I'm so glad that I don't live in that neighborhood anymore.

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Fall is here. Soon the sporadic drone of leaf blowers will begin.

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Specializes in CMSRN, hospice.

Football season is upon us. I dread Sunday afternoons before work in the fall. I live in an apartment next to a few college students, and game days promise to be noisy, judging from their parties. Plus, I can get high just walking through the hallway after 9 pm.

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Specializes in geriatrics.

My upstairs neighbour liked to play his guitar at midnight. I am so happy he's moved out!

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Specializes in PCCN.

I utilize an app called white noise. It helps tremendously when things are too noisy. And the eye shades.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

A large fan (or two) provides great "white noise" to enable sleeping, but it doesn't do much about the target shooting while you're awake and wanting to concentrate on balancing your checkbook or binge watching "House of Cards." Any chance you can shoot back at your neighbor?

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.

So, not really a day off.... When I worked night shift as a CNA I lived on the top floor of an apartment. For several days in a row, they were installing a new roof on the building. Why couldn't they do that stuff at night when I was at work???

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