when i was a kid
our school took field trips on earth day to a local park, where we each received a sapling and pledged to plant it. we wrote letters to the president asking that he please do something (i don't remember what) about the endangered elephants. they taught us to always cut the plastic on six-packs so poor little birdies don't get their beaks caught. we never let balloons go because once the paint wore off, they would look like jellyfish to seals who would then choke on them. and what might have seemed most obvious was that you should never, never use the hose or a gas-powered blower to remove leaves and debris from your lawn/sidewalk/wherever.
why do i keep seeing people use these blowing devices all over silverlake, of all places? am i the only one who cringes when she sees them???
posted by jamie at 1:47 PM
1 Comments:
it's 4 1/2 years later, and i can state that this isn't just a problem in silverlake. our neighbors in glassell park hire gardeners that use leaf blowers, too. there are certain instances where i think they're appropriate, but those are few and far between.
not only are they a waste (they make the job quicker, so the gardener gets paid less, if working by the hour; americans don't get nearly enough exercise, so sweeping it up with brooms & rakes seems a happy marriage of labor and exercise), but they're also exceptionally loud. unlike a lawnmower, which has a low, steady grumble in its engine, the leaf blower has an irritating, high-pitched whine that periodically rises, so it's entirely too distracting to do anything. you can't even hear music or your TV over the sound.
and what's more, they're just blowing all that debris into the street, leaves and trash alike. which means that it's just going to blow back onto the sidewalks again anyway. if not, and the street sweeper (who rarely comes on our street anyhow) picks it up, since it's a mix of trash and leaves, it can't go into the city's big compost pile that they turn into free mulch/soil.
they're evil on so many levels. i just don't have the courage to confront my neighbors and tell them this. so i'll leave it safe and sound on my blog until i get to know them better and feel like i can bring this up. heck, i ought to ask them to pay me to do the sweeping. even if it's a pittance, at least i'm not *paying* to get my exercise.
and on that note, what's up with paying for exercise? i understand how it really works for certain people, because of the specialized equipment. but take the people who are just trying to get in their 30 minutes a day of physical activity, and get it on the treadmill or the elliptical machine. time drags because you're not doing anything useful, and you have to pay for it. then you have to pay your gardener because you spend a good hunk of your very limited free time at the gym. save money and make exercise a bit more organic to your life by sweeping your property, folks. you're out in nature, you're taking pride in your home, and the time really flies by when you're busy sweeping. unlike the elliptical machine, where time drags on and on and on.
ok, rant over.
11:52 AM
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