The All Night Generator

We are staying at Convict Lake and for the first time camping in the RV, we have experienced a rude and thoughtless neighbor parked across from us. He is pulling a trailer and I have actually not seen who the person is. I won’t jump to conclusions and false assumptions, but I bet it is a man! Sorry all you men out there, but women don’t pull this type of trailer! *

Last night around 10:00 in the evening, long after my bedtime, our neighbor turned on his generator. In every Campground we have stayed in so far, quiet hour is from 10:00 pm to 7am. This is not a generator that sounds well maintained, and this only compounds the problem. It sputters and coughs and actually sounds a lot like Callie when she is purring. It has a rhythm all its own that is a consistent purr but then suddenly coughs and sputters loudly! When trying to get to sleep, I focused on the thought that it was Callie purring, and this helped me get to sleep. But the generator sounded more like Callie having another bout of viral pneumonia and this was not a soothing sound at all. A couple of days ago, Callie started to cough again and we are going to have to take her to the vet once more in hopes of getting her well. So listening to a generator mimic Callie being sick all night was not reassuring, nor relaxing at all!

Around 11:30 Michael had had enough of the noise and told me he was going over to tell them to turn it off. By then I was wide awake myself and told him to be careful and handle the situation without getting into a brawl. Michael will do everything he can to avoid conflict, but if an injustice is being played out, he is right there to enlighten the individual about it! When Michael opened up the door to head over to the trailer, he inadvertently let a mosquito in, which prompted me to shout at him to “shut the door and don’t let in any more mosquitos!” I then said “thank you so much for helping out!” when I realized how selfish I sounded. I wasn’t about to go over there and ask the neighbor myself, and the generator was making it really difficult to sleep.

Michael wasn’t gone more then 5 minutes, and when he returned, he let me know that he had banged on the door several times, quite loudly, and no one had answered. He thought the person was either passed out or had refused to answer the door. We ended up having to listen to the generator all night long, but with the help of an ear plug, I was once again able to partially pretend that it was Callie purring away so that I could stay calm and relaxed and not get all upset about the noise. I ended up having a pretty good night sleep in spite of it all, and Callie had a fabulous night sleep. I put her round fluffy pillow bed in the corner of the upper loft because it was chilly last night and a thunderstorm had passed overhead, and she snuggled into it and slept through the night. Maybe what Callie needs in order to get a good night sleep is a generator that sounds like her coughing and purring?

The next day when we got up, we complained to Dennis, the ranger host, and he too knocked on the trailer door and no one answered. He left a rules and regulations notice on the door and told me he may be hanging out with friends further down the campground. He promised to talk to him face to face before the end of the day. The trailer is still across the street so I am hoping I don’t have to listen to the generator all night again tonight. If I do, I shall once again pretend that it is Callie purring and try not to get too upset. Michael on the other hand will most certainly serve out justice if they are rude and inconsiderate once again!

• We found out that it is indeed a man and he is on dialysis…. Dennis had a talk with him and we are very sorry to hear of his health issues. The rules still hold though and generators have to be turned off after 10pm.
• Our neighbor once again chose to turn on his generator last night, all night long, and Michael and I had a discussion about the moral implications of his illness and his rights as someone who is sick, versus those of us who are trying to escape the noise of city life and enjoy nature. We think the park service should offer several sights like handicapped sights for people that have an illness that requires medical services that will impact campers around them. Put these camp sights on the edge of the campground and somewhat further away from the rest of the campers so the noise won’t be so loud. I think it should be required that someone who needs to be on dialysis check in with the neighbors around him and let them know of his medical requirements and that he will need to use a generator at night in order to hook up to his dialysis machine. He can then be moved if his neighbors are negatively impacted by it. He has a right to enjoy his life, but campers have a right to peace and quiet from 10pm to 7am. It is an interesting conundrum and Michael is going to share his thoughts with Dennis. Being a retired podiatrist, Michael is very familiar with the devastating impact diabetes has on an individual. The life expectancy of someone on dialysis is less than 10 years. Our neighbor is also being inconsiderate for having been told that he can’t have the generator on at certain hours and doing it anyway. I have not seen the guy and it would have been considerate of him to let us know. We would have shown compassion toward him rather than feel annoyed and irritated by the all night generator!
• The good that has come out of it all, is that Michael went and talked to a couple next door to the generator man, and he and his wife are going to move to our campsite when we leave today. His wife is from Turkey and he is from Redlands where Michael use to practice medicine. His wife just received her PhD and he teaches English in Turkey. They are hoping to move back to the United States some day soon.
• Paul and his wife placed their chair at our campsite as we pulled out to leave and they now have a campsite next to the river.
• The All Night Generator man will be asked to move to another site with the help of the staff if he continues to need to use his generator all night.