No matter the price of the coffee nor the tone of the town or the size of its hanging flower baskets it appears that an early birds contemplating is to be shattered by a leaf blower.
This morning just prior to 7 AM I was down the street from my office in Lake Oswego, Oregon although I could just as easily have been enjoying a much less expensive and somewhat more stimulating cotrtadito on Key Biscayne, FL. You know the rest of it; a deafening shriek, the stench of two cycle and the blast of wind just moments prior to the dust and detritus of yesterday enveloping you. Nationwide these things are a nuisance, polluting in countless ways.
I had just walked a mile or two, seen the carp rolling along the lake shore, a Bald Eagle flying towards the Willamette, given my customary nod to the regulars and their Golden Retreivers, including the one carrying his owners empty coffee cup and was preparing to sit a minute and start the day with my wife who is working away in South Florida’s humidity…..presumably after enjoying a Cortadito and a leaf blower some three hours earlier. It’s a bit much if the landscapers of the world don’t mind me saying so. The whole job seems to represent an annuity as you just blow it from A to B without ever picking a thing up. Must be some perverse satisfaction in blowing it onto the neighbors and their property then driving away knowing full well the breeze will bring it all back for you to huff and puff at again. I hope you are not already deaf to my concerns, While I understand the operator must wear earplugs to prevent hearing loss that concern apparently does not extend to those of us sitting mere feet away.
It brought to mind an article I just came across, dealing with justice in Zambia where a British businessman incurred a stint amongst the flower beds of Lusaka for a visa violation. Fifeteen days tending to the flowers rather than a spell in jail. Needless to say he was “happy”. At 7 AM anywhere on the planet I take a dim view of leaf blowers so it would be wonderful to be able to take a leaf from the Zambian Judge’s creative sentencing guidelines and introduce a few people to a broom and the rest of us to peace and quiet.
annuity price…
Very nice, I like your post….