Noise sandwich

I have no way of knowing for sure, of course, but there's a conspiracy theory brewing in me that my downstairs neighbor has been talking to my upstairs neighbor. This theory goes that they have a competition to see who can be the loudest in the most strange way and the most random time of night.

My only evidence that this is happening that, last night, I woke up at a quarter after twelve to the sound of a drill. Like the goings-on in the apartment below, it wasn't really loud enough to warrant a neighborly knock on the door, but it was enough to wake me up. Normally, Mr. Upstairs's noise is relegated to stomping and dropping things on the floor, so this was pretty unusual. Not content with just drilling, he then switched to what I can only guess was a floor sander, and this was about 15 times louder.

What in God's name posseses someone to pull out a floor sander after midnight? What is missing in Mr. Upstairs's brain function that doesn't keep him from thinking that maybe it's a little late for using impossibly loud power tools? I actually kept looking back at the clock, thinking that maybe something bizarre had happened to time and space and, even though it was dark, it was actually noon and not midnight (noon being an acceptable power tool time). An eclipse, maybe? I still haven't ruled that out, but it seems unlikely.

The conspiracy theory gets a little more ammunition when, as soon as I'd put on some pants to go upstairs and ask him as nicely as possible if he didn't agree that 12:15 AM was maybe an unfortunate time to be doing activities that required earplus, the noise stopped. I waited for it to start back up again, but it didn't. But I was fully awake by this time, so I spent the next two hours listening to music (please note: with headphones), including the insanely catchy "Could Be Anything" by the Eames Era, which you can and should download here.

Hey, who am I to say that Mr. Upstairs didn't suddenly have some obsessive urge to finally take care of that floor sanding he'd been meaning to get around to? It's possible. Likely, even. But if my theory is correct (note: it isn't) I think that he's just upped the ante, and I'm nervous to see what Mr. Downstairs is going to try to do to top it.