Unbelievable!

I understand it is fall. Fall is the time when leaves fall. Many leaves have already fallen with the first really cold night. There are still plenty more to go. The city schedules a leaf pick up next week.

With that said, the neighbors have brought out their leaf blowers and with that, a LOT OF NOISE.

Now I understand the leaf blower. It is a good tool. It is a vacuum cleaner in reverse. When the leaves are dry, this anti-suction machine can blow a big pile of mulch in no time.

There are the little electric models trailing an extension cord but it does the job. The more powerful model is the gas-powered hand held. The monster is the backpack blower that requires headphones to quiet the noise. There are also push models and probably a tank with a giant blower on it and they all make noise.

There are trucks and trailers weaving through the neighborhood with troops who jump out and cut grass only to blow it all into the street.

I’m not sure if it is an alpha male thing, but the noise seems to be more important than the amount of leaves can be blown. Like sweeping back and forth with a big hose in your hands but with the power of a hurricane, landscapers fill the air with noise.

And so it was today that my neighbors decided to clean their green blank lawns of those pesky brown leaves. Some might make an environmental mulch pile for the spring planting. Some will just blow them into the streets to piles of wet slick rotting blanket until spring. For leaves will decompose and next spring everyone will forget the new buds on the trees must be moved in the fall.

So today was noisy day. I understand the process, but after several hours of this buzzing in my head, I had to leave and take refuge at a different location. After many hours it starts to grate like a dentist drill that doesn’t bring satisfaction except when they are all turned off.

Soon the snow will fall and the winter white wonderland will be a silent as a snow globe. I can get back to the peace and quiet of living in a forest, but today had to be the noisy day.

I guess no one ever heard of these?