Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Not So Silent Spring

Spring has arrived in eastern Massachusetts. How can I tell? The early migraters are back. I heard the first rusty caroling of a robin just the other day. The crocuses are up. The snow and ice are gone. Hints of green are everywhere. But none of those things say "Spring" like the roaring drone of small internal combustion engines.

As early as 8:15 this morning the landscaping crew arrived to begin the spring clean-up on the massive lawn of our friend and neighbor's yard. I counted at least one riding mower and four backpack leaf blowers. The relentless drone went on for nearly an hour.

I was reminded that I have about eight months of this noise ahead of me and I am reminded how sick and tired I am of it. I've ranted about this before and I won't repeat myself here. I'll simply say that I dream of a day when we, as a society, see how stupid we have been regarding the pointless waste and pollution we create in our mindless quest for the perfect suburban lawn.

2 comments:

robin andrea said...

Give me an old-fashioned push mower anyday. They don't scare me. All those other gas-powered things make too much noise and kill lots of little critters that hide in the tall grasses.

You commented on the Bums the other day about driving 80 mph in LA. It's some of the craziest driving I've ever done, but honestly not going with the flow of traffic there is deadly. Weird place.

daringtowrite said...

One of my neighbours has a push mower and I so love to hear him out in his yard. I've asked our landscaper to stay clear of my place (with his noisy exhaust-reeking equipment) and I take care of what grass he misses with my electric weed whacker. But I'd like to get myself a push mower.