Two neighbor stories for you.

1. I live in a garage apartment behind a duplex, which means my apartment is right next to someone else's backyard. They have fence, but it's not wooden, so you can see through it. They also have a patio where they tend to hang out. My washing machine and dryer are outside my apartment, which means I have to walk outside to do laundry (I share the washer and dryer with the tenants in the duplex). See Exhibit A below.

Exhibit A

There is normally no one in the backyard when I am doing laundry, so I tend to walk outside without a shirt. I figure hey, it's my place, it's not very far, and I'm basically in the privacy of my own backyard.

Well, I was doing laundry yesterday afternoon. On the way back from starting a new load, I notice that my neighbors are in their backyard, that their parents are there, and that their granddaughter (maybe 5 years old) is also there. I also noticed I'm not wearing a shirt. Oops.

2. I play bass a little loud every now and then. How loud? Loud enough to shake my walls, and probably let the neighbors know how much soul I have (I'm like James Brown - I got soul to spare). Around the same time I was doing laundry, I was also jamming out to some older Lenny Kravitz, a song called "Come On And Love Me." It has a really great drum beat and a simple, funky bass line. It's perfect jam-out fodder. So there I was, jamming away in my apartment, when I get a Gmail chat message from one of the guys in the duplex:

"play that funky music white boy"

I figured I was too loud. He heard me. Then he said:

"Just got back from some GREAT margaritas (very surprised for Pittsburgh)"

HE WAS IN PITTSBURGH. How did he know I was playing that funky music?