SOB does stand for “Sweet Old Boys,” right?
Well, let’s see! I
wonder how many of my neighbors enjoyed sitting out on their back patios, or
screened in porches, enjoying a nice cool or, perhaps, on a fine autumn day
like this, a nice warm tea listening to the migrating birds sing their songs as
they looked around for a tidbit or two in our or in one of our neighbors’ yards? Well, I guess some might have enjoyed doing
that, until, that is, one of those SOB’s decided he (or she) just couldn’t stand
the thought of those leaves in their yard, regardless of how many or few there
might be, and cranked one of those detestable noise makers they decided to
invest in (for whatever reason.)
Years ago, when most of us moved into our newly constructed
homes in my neighborhood, we used to spend just a bit of time looking skyward
to see how many (or how few) leaves remained on some of our “Woodland Estates”
trees. The reason behind this would be,
if the leaves were mostly gone from the tree limbs, it was time to do a bit of raking—collecting
the leaves in piles that were destined to go either to a leaf pile, where they
would rot and provide us with good material for our gardens the next year, or,
for the occasional leaf burn that provided just a bit of material for the gardens,
not nearly the same as the material from one of our rotted leaf piles, though. Those were pre-leafblower days, for
sure. And, to my way of thinking, those
days were preferable to what we have today.
Leaf blowers are, for some of us, the curse of our daily
lives on more than just a few occasions.
Of course those who use them are mostly denizens of a more recent “generation”
than those of us who turned a bit of nature into a bit of a neighborhood for
our earliest SRS employees, those whose work put us ahead of Russia in the arms
race. SRS, called the Savannah River
Plant, SRP, at the time, along with Hanford on the west coast did what was
needed for us to be able to out produce the Russians in the Nuclear Bomb
department to the extent that they really did not want to go to war anytime in
the near future (or, from their smart ones, anytime at all!)
This was done and we all are here today because of what
America did back then.
And, thank God for that!
Now, about those “blowers…”
I’m not opposed to their use, so long as the SOB’s keep
their darn noise on their own properties.
It’s quite possible, you see, the blower and it’s crew could do its
blowing and they could at the same time tow around a wagon with a decent
muffler to take care of the noise that their blower generates to the dismay of
many of their neighbors. And to the
dismay of quite a few flights of birds passing through to get to their winter
destinations.
And consider this: We
still have a few shift workers in our environ.
Wouldn’t want them to band together and hire some enterprising attorney
to make the minimalization of the noise those neighbors foist upon their neighborhoods
a thing of the past.
Pretty good idea?
Vote “yes” if you are a shift worker!
Or, of course, if you just value a quiet neighborhood.
And why not? Then,
again, the city streets are carrying some advertisements to enforce the use of
adequate mufflers on our vehicles. Maybe
the same could be made to apply to our leaf-blowing neighbors. I suspect I’m not the only Citizen who would
appreciate the Council doing something to cut down on this unnecessary
noise. And, by the way, I did
check: Our various hardware stores do
still sell leaf rakes!
And, those rakes are not nearly as expensive an those leaf
blowers are.
How about it Council?
How about it!
