B-Rant

- submitted by b-team on 03/29/2007

Voices Of Spring -- 1

7:45 A.M. Guys in sweatshirts, Yankees caps, red-orange bandanas . . . blasting leaf blowers all sides of our house.

Four to the right. Three to the left. Equaling 11 when you total them.

Sum greater than parts.

Six across the street.

Dust clouds filled with medium sized sticks. A cat, terrified, climbs up a tree and falls down. She tries again. Falls down again.

Cliche. Hate cliches. The sound, scene; it's surreal (almost), brain splitting.

LOUD

Our town doesn't permit parking on our empty streets after midnight.

Our town permits this. Decibels greater than at most mid-sized airports. Before breakfast.

Outside. Two women in bathrobes on the street are screaming at each other. They can't hear each other. They're waving frenetically. A stick flies toward one of them. She ducks. The stick hits the other who collapses on the ground. There's blood visible from our window. She's crying. The other one races to two of the guys with leaf blowers and screams at them. They're wearing ear phone-mufflers, their blowers are on. They wave their hands in a motion saying we can't hear you . . . and, honestly, even if we could, we can't understand you because we don't speak English.

The woman goes back to her friend who's now sitting up. The cat, out of nowhere, lands on her lap. She tosses it aside. The cat comes right back, sits on her lap.

Spring. Week 1.

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• Get it off your chest

Amen!!!!!

- submitted by Anonymous on 03/29/2007

Amen!!!!!

I so hate leaf blowers, they

- submitted by blowerhater on 03/29/2007

I so hate leaf blowers, they should be banned, they should be eradicated, the people who use them should be imprisoned without parole.

My town in Pa limits times

- submitted by Anonymous on 03/29/2007

My town in Pa limits times people can use leaf blowers. We wanted them eliminated, but at least they can't do it early in the morning.

Our neighbors are really

- submitted by nightmareneighbors on 03/29/2007

Our neighbors are really screwy. Not only do they use a leaf blower, now they bought a leaf vaccum which makes even more noise.

They blow the leaves into a pile, then they vaccuum them. They're crazy and they do it all the time.

We want to kill them. We've asked them to limit when they do it and they refuse. It's unbelievable. All these things should be banned!

leaf blowers are the dioxin

- submitted by Anonymous on 03/29/2007

leaf blowers are the dioxin of the 21st century. silent killers. except not silent, i know

All we need to do is wear

- submitted by itcouldbeworse on 03/29/2007

All we need to do is wear sound proof ear phones all day and leaf blowing won't be a problem. I do it now sometimes to avoid hearing my husband complain. Not sure which is worse, his screeching or the landscapers' blowers.

We're meeting later this

- submitted by Anonymous on 03/29/2007

We're meeting later this spring in town to consider banning leaf blowers. They're heinous. Polls show 80% residents want them gone. Can there be a leaf blowers lobby? They seem to have too much influence whoever they are.

as long as we're bashing

- submitted by Anonymous on 03/29/2007

as long as we're bashing leaf blowers, what about power lawn tractors? they make almost as much noise.

At least power mowers do

- submitted by itcouldbeworse on 03/29/2007

At least power mowers do something useful and more efficiently. People could easily use hand rakes to get up most of their leaves.

People could also just as

- submitted by gorakers on 03/29/2007

People could also just as easily use manual mowers. Remember them? I do, as a kid. They work great, they just involve more exercise. If more people went back to them we'd have less noise and a much healthier population.

i screamed at a group of

- submitted by thebosser on 03/30/2007

i screamed at a group of landscapers this morning. they were using leave blowers just to play around and it was 7:30 a.m.

they stopped, and i felt it was one of my greatest accomplishments for the month.

Our town, central marlyand,

- submitted by Anonymous on 03/31/2007

Our town, central marlyand, is now considering a big ban on these things. It'll never pass because the gardening freaks in town won't let it.

But it's a big step, and eventually the majority of us who want it stopped will win.

TotalLY TOTALLY FRUSTRATING. Saturday morning they started up their engines before 8 a.m.!

I think i'm filig for

- submitted by Anonymous on 04/01/2007

I think i'm filig for divorce. My husband bought his own leaf blower. I don't know what's happening to him, but every month he's becoming more and more a Stepford suburban husband.

If he buys any more power yard tools, it's over!!!

My husband did the same

- submitted by sickofhusband on 04/01/2007

My husband did the same thing. He's suddenly become Mr. Fix-it which would be great if he wasn't such a spastic in that area. He buys these loud gadets then stores them in the garage. We can't fit our cars in there now. It's craziness.

I threw away all the power

- submitted by Anonymous on 04/02/2007

I threw away all the power tools in our garage. I'm sick of them. my husband doesn't know yet. I'll probably tell him they were stolen. Bad, I know, but extraordinary situations require extraordinary measures.

Hello? Don't throw them

- submitted by I'lltakethem on 04/02/2007

Hello? Don't throw them away. I'll take them. You must be losing it. Not all power tools are equally bad. Take a vacation or something.

I saw a landscaper outside

- submitted by Anonymous on 04/03/2007

I saw a landscaper outside yesterday using 2 leaf blowers simultaneously. It looked ridiculous. I've never seen that before.

It's called multi-tasking,

- submitted by multitasker on 04/03/2007

It's called multi-tasking, hon. Get used to it. Next week they'll have the tractor mower strapped on to their jeans.

It was pouring today in

- submitted by Anonymous on 04/04/2007

It was pouring today in north NJ. 4 guys were trying to blow leaves around and they weren't moving. The guys kept cursing and didn't get it. tTey wouldn't leave until they could move the leaves. I think they're still out there.

I admire their stick to it-ness.

leaf blowing husband

- submitted by not making nice on 04/11/2007

Actually there aren't many leaves to clean up as much as grass cuttings, etc. He loves to get out there and mow and edge and "blow"....right at suppertime on a quiet Sunday evening. Some nights he will literally be out there making a heck of a lot of noise at 9 o'clock at night. I feel sorry for our neighbors on all sides of us, except for the kid down the street who serenades us with his drumming. Too bad my husband won't use the leaf blower when that kid is going at it.

I guess my husband loves noisy machinery....he works around airplanes and is half deaf now anyway. arrrgggg!

tisk tisk

- submitted by Anonymous on 06/01/2007

I understand the frustration with these air manipulating contraptions . . . but I have not heard anyone save a couple entries mention that it was a real neighbor and not a lawn crew operating the blower. Someone mentioned the healthy american thing . . . of those complaining about the blower problem; how many are in the optimal weight category? Case and point: "I want my lawn to look fabulous but don'y have the time/effort to do it in". What room do youhave to nag the hired help? (occurances at 7-9 in the AM excluded from this statemenet)