Of heat & hate, a passive aggressive story of revenge

IT'S HOT. Africa hot. Humid too. Reminds me of college, and the less then stellar dorm AC. It also reminds me of how I managed to sleep in the dorm apartments in the Summer when I had the douchebag party animals living above me.

I'm not the passive aggressive sort. In fact, most folks would generally call me aggressive (Side note, at work, I was voted most likely to have a nice twin - making me the evil one). However, back in college I found that sometimes it's better to use a little strategery vs a full frontal assault.

A bit of background. We lived in a pretty cush apartment on campus. Two guys, we each had our own bathroom and separate bedrooms, but shared a common kitchen and living room. I consider it dorm living at it's finest. We even had our own AC unit that the school paid for. We also lived on the ground floor. That was the flaw in our otherwise brilliant living arrangement. You see, we had a group of assholes who lived above us, and while we had things like class and work to deal with, they thought nothing of inviting their whole group likeminded jerks over to party beginning on Thursday, and lasting until Late Sunday.

Now, I have been known to drink my share. Back then I even would "party hardy" or some other such nonsense. I however tried to be considerate of my neighbors. I tried not to blast my stereo at o3:30 AM. I definitely didn't have parties so raucous that people would stand on my balcony and pee. The guys who lived above me had no such qualms. At first I tried to be nice. "Hey guys, would you mind being quieter?" They always would, for about 4 minutes. I tried a more straight forward approach, but I don't think they could hear my screaming. I even knocked on the door and told them in no uncertain terms to shut the fuck up.

Threats of violence usually worked, at least until the next night, so in a stroke of genius, I decided to start preempting their parties. You see, I have a basic understanding of how air conditioning works. I'm a big fan of it myself and tend to use it. Heavily. So, any time I overheard their plans for a big party, I would open my window, remove the screen, and cut the breaker to their condensing unit. (just a circuit breaker it's the first thing I would have checked) This act usually occurred somewhere around 4:00 on Friday afternoons. By the time their apartment started to get hot, the physical plant guys were already gone for the weekend. A trouble ticket was entered and they would get to it asap on Monday morning.

Nobody wanted to hang out at their apartment, because it would only blow hot air. Because of that, they decided to party at the frat house instead. Problem solved. Everyone is happy. Sunday night as I head off to sleep, I reach out the window and turn the breaker back on. Poof! Cold air starts blowing, and no problem when the physical plant guys show up on Monday morning.

I guess a full frontal assault isn't the only way to get things done.