So I'm calmer now and this may be in the wrong thread...like maybe I'm just annoyed and no longer pissed but WTH.
2 days ago, our next door neighbors launched their fire pit. The fire pit is literally 10 feet in from our shared fence. And inside that part of the shared fence is about 20 feet from our bedroom. So I'm out watering the deck when I notice plumes of smoke billowing from their new fire pit. This was around 8 pm. I'm literally gagging on the smoke and coughing it is that bad. I grumble to myself but do not say anything. When it comes time to hit the bed, around midnight, I open the windows like always to let the fresh air in. Only now the fresh air feels like the 2nd hand smoke of about 300 packs of cigarettes. My neighbor and his wife are out there, sitting around the campfire. I close the window and turn on a box fan.
Fast forward to last night. I've left the windows open as the temps were not horrible and by the time I've noticed they've lit the pit again, the inside of my house smells like a campfire. What is worse, the neighbor's 18 year old daughter is having a party with about a half dozen girlfriends around the fire pit doing what teenage girls do. I close up the windows and try to ignore it until bedtime. They are still going strong at 11 pm. It is a Sunday night. I now have the beginnings of a migraine from the smoke.
They are loud but they could be louder. I'm biting my tongue. I don't want to be a Karen. It is summertime but fuck, I need to work today. I turn on the fans (plural) to high and hope to get to sleep. I finally drift off around 1 am when I am awakened by the girls whooping and hollering literally right outside my bedroom. I get up, I get dressed, I go out onto the deck and turn on the lights and say, "Hey neighbor! I appreciate you all are having fun but it is after 1 am and some of us have to work tomorrow. Could you move your party to a different spot so I can get some sleep?" Sure, they say. About a half hour later the fire pit is out and they are inside. I open my window and finally get a few hours of sleep.
I wake up this morning with a full blown migraine, a sore throat, and burning eyes. I call in sick because the medicine I need to take for my migraine is not going to work with driving.
I hate confrontation and like I said, I don't want to be a Karen. I checked our city noise ordinance law and it says quiet time is from 10 pm to 7 am. I walk over to the neighbor's house and speak to the young woman's mom. I'm mostly focused on the smoke. She seemed prepared to apologize more for the noise issue. I let her know that I thought all in all the girls did a pretty decent job keeping the noise down but that the noise combined with 48 hours worth of fire pit smoke is making me physically ill. We talked through it. They cannot move the fire pit location as they had some device sunk into the ground there and then put a slab of concrete on top where the pit sits. They even took out a tree last year to get ready for the pit (I knew about the tree but I didn't know of their plans for the pit). I let her know that I understood that they are entitled to enjoy their back yard but also let her know that the smoke is really affecting my health and our ability to open our windows in our bedroom. She said it would not be a nightly thing and TBH as fire danger season continues to ramp up, the fire pits will likely be banned soon anyway. She invited me to text her if things got bad.
I feel like we both did well talking and listening to each other, so I guess I can't ask for more than that. But damn you guys....with all that we know about the danger of inhalation of smoke and particulate matter I just cannot fathom subjecting my neighbors and my own children to that kind of smoke. I read online that 1 hour of burning in a campfire is equivalent to inhaling 30 cigarettes.