Must Control Fist Of Rage

From the Hillbilly Neighbour Files - Case #5892:

At around 7pm (bedtime) last night, we started to hear horrible squealing sounds coming through the wall accompanied by some nasty hammering. My neighbours have a penchant for engaging in late-night weekend renovations but this was just ridiculous.

It was only 7pm, so I decided to give them until 9pm to stop unless it got crazy.

The noise levels were rather low until about 8:30pm or so. At this point the squealing of the concrete drill and hammering started again. I was watching a movie at this point and was going to give them until about 9:30 but I couldn't take it anymore by about 9:20.

I stomped over to the neighbour's door, politely rap on their door and wait for them to answer the door.

When they do, I say, in as calm and pleasant a voice as I can muster, "Hi there. I just wanted to know if you were going to be finished hammering anytime soon."

Now at this point the average human with a modicum of neighbourly feelings would say something along the lines of, "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize we were being so loud. We'll just finish up in a few minutes and you won't hear a peep out of us until tomorrow."

Of course, these neighbours of mine give sea urchins a run for their money in the social skills category. And that's a bit of a slight towards the sea urchins.

What is the first thing to come out of my hillbilly neighbour's mouth?

"It's not 11 yet." (11pm being the noise bylaw cutoff time in our complex.)

It took all of my reserve not to just pop him in the nose right there. I somehow kept my cool and politely reminded him that we had kids trying to sleep and thankfully they did keep the drilling and hammering to a dull roar, but man...