That sound really travels over water

Doug and Kathy Cook’s search for peace and solitude was rewarded when they found a quaint, rustic cottage on a lake with only two other cabins; one directly across a narrow bay and the other at the far end of the lake. The owner of the cabin across the bay, a young executive from Boston, had recently accepted a job overseas and his cabin would be vacant for quite some time. It was like having their own private lake.

For two years, life at the lake was spent in harmony with nature. One summer night, as Doug and Kathy sat by their campfire down by the water, they noticed the lights on in the cabin across the bay. “Oh look,” said Kathy, “our neighbors have returned. Let’s go introduce ourselves in the morning.”

The words had barely left her lips when suddenly their utopia was shattered by 600 watts of thumping, resonating, monster cable-powered 122-inch sub-woofers blasting heavy-metal lyrics directly at them across the water. Their Walden Pond was instantly transformed into the front row at Woodstock. Their free concert finally wound down well after midnight.

The Cooks didn’t go introduce themselves the next morning, although the music man did receive a visit from the local police. Things improved that summer, although

Occasionally they received a blast of Guns “N” Roses from across the water. The following Christmas, the Cooks gave each other a set of earplugs. Why couldn’t their neighbor have been a big Miles Davis fan instead?, they wondered.

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