Merry Christmas and Lawn mowers

[Andrew Sarangan]

As I woke up this fine christmas morning to the sound of obnoxious
lawn mowers, not just one, but a whole battalion of them, I can't help
but wonder what happened to all the peace of quietness this day is
supposed to typify. Whats up with this riutal of mowing your lawn
early Xmas morning, in below freezing temperatures? Our whole family
was up angry and irritated at the high decibel noise outside our
bedroom windows. We live under a busy airport traffic pattern, and I
can't ever remember being woken up by airplane noise. But the same
neighborhood that complains about airplane noise seems to think
nothing of lawn mowers and leaf blowers that run for many hours
straight right outside their windows. It's much worse in the summer,
but it seems winter is no exception either.

I've always been tempted to do a noise pollution study comparing lawn
mowers to airplanes. This just might become my New Years resolution.

[Matt Whiting]

Andrew Sarangan wrote:
> As I woke up this fine christmas morning to the sound of obnoxious
> lawn mowers, not just one, but a whole battalion of them, I can't help
> but wonder what happened to all the peace of quietness this day is
> supposed to typify. Whats up with this riutal of mowing your lawn
> early Xmas morning, in below freezing temperatures? Our whole family
> was up angry and irritated at the high decibel noise outside our
> bedroom windows. We live under a busy airport traffic pattern, and I
> can't ever remember being woken up by airplane noise. But the same
> neighborhood that complains about airplane noise seems to think
> nothing of lawn mowers and leaf blowers that run for many hours
> straight right outside their windows. It's much worse in the summer,
> but it seems winter is no exception either.
>
> I've always been tempted to do a noise pollution study comparing lawn
> mowers to airplanes. This just might become my New Years resolution.
>
>

You obviously live too far south. The snow here in PA keeps the
lawnmowers silent for 6 months of the year at least.

Matt

[Jim Macklin]

Snowmobiles, snow blowers, chain saws clearing the trees that fell down due
to the ice, portable generators.

Bring back manual shovels in the winter, rakes in the summer and get rid of
the screaming leaf blowers.

Jet skis on the pond, 1,000,ooo watt amps on the beach for the concert.



"Matt Whiting" > wrote in message
...
| Andrew Sarangan wrote:
| > As I woke up this fine christmas morning to the sound of obnoxious
| > lawn mowers, not just one, but a whole battalion of them, I can't help
| > but wonder what happened to all the peace of quietness this day is
| > supposed to typify. Whats up with this riutal of mowing your lawn
| > early Xmas morning, in below freezing temperatures? Our whole family
| > was up angry and irritated at the high decibel noise outside our
| > bedroom windows. We live under a busy airport traffic pattern, and I
| > can't ever remember being woken up by airplane noise. But the same
| > neighborhood that complains about airplane noise seems to think
| > nothing of lawn mowers and leaf blowers that run for many hours
| > straight right outside their windows. It's much worse in the summer,
| > but it seems winter is no exception either.
| >
| > I've always been tempted to do a noise pollution study comparing lawn
| > mowers to airplanes. This just might become my New Years resolution.
| >
| >
|
| You obviously live too far south. The snow here in PA keeps the
| lawnmowers silent for 6 months of the year at least.
|
| Matt

[B A R R Y]

On Wed, 26 Dec 2007 08:28:55 -0800 (PST), Andrew Sarangan
> wrote:

>I've always been tempted to do a noise pollution study comparing lawn
>mowers to airplanes. This just might become my New Years resolution.
>


Mowerlune? <G>

I live too far north for mowing on Christmas, but I'm with ya'!

[B A R R Y]

On Wed, 26 Dec 2007 13:16:06 -0600, "Jim Macklin"
> wrote:


>
>Bring back manual shovels in the winter,


Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

I'll push a reel mower, rake the leaves, and hand work my woodworking,
but the taking away my snowblower is fightin' words! <G>

[C J Campbell[_1_]]

On 2007-12-26 08:28:55 -0800, Andrew Sarangan > said:

>
> As I woke up this fine christmas morning to the sound of obnoxious
> lawn mowers

We woke up to snow. Another white Christmas. The mud in my yard is
still knee deep, as it is for three or four houses on either side of
us. I now have a huge gravel dike running along the stream bank in my
yard, no grass and hardly any shrubs or roses left. We do have the
water and mud cleared out of the house now, mostly, and the driveway is
finally clear of the 18 inches of muck that was deposited on it.

Several of the neighbors are using portable generators or tractors,
trying to clear silt deposited almost a month ago.

Count your blessings.

--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor

[Matt Whiting]

Jim Macklin wrote:
> Snowmobiles, snow blowers, chain saws clearing the trees that fell down due
> to the ice, portable generators.
>
> Bring back manual shovels in the winter, rakes in the summer and get rid of
> the screaming leaf blowers.
>
> Jet skis on the pond, 1,000,ooo watt amps on the beach for the concert.

You are on a slippery slope, Jim. If you ban virtually any of the
above, then banning airplanes for noise is easy. Actually, even I can
easily make the case that chainsaws for clearing ice-felled trees is
more of an imperative than almost any GA flying that is done other than
organ transplants.

Matt

[Jim Macklin]

The standard square point dirt shovel is best for snow, it will also chop
ice. It won't break your back either. The big blade snow shovels work fine
with 1/2 inch of snow, but are nearly useless with a 2-3 foot drift.


"B A R R Y" > wrote in message
...
| On Wed, 26 Dec 2007 13:16:06 -0600, "Jim Macklin"
| > wrote:
|
|
| >
| >Bring back manual shovels in the winter,
|
|
| Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
|
| I'll push a reel mower, rake the leaves, and hand work my woodworking,
| but the taking away my snowblower is fightin' words! <G>

[Jim Macklin]

sarcastic humor.



"Matt Whiting" > wrote in message
...
| Jim Macklin wrote:
| > Snowmobiles, snow blowers, chain saws clearing the trees that fell down
due
| > to the ice, portable generators.
| >
| > Bring back manual shovels in the winter, rakes in the summer and get rid
of
| > the screaming leaf blowers.
| >
| > Jet skis on the pond, 1,000,ooo watt amps on the beach for the concert.
|
| You are on a slippery slope, Jim. If you ban virtually any of the
| above, then banning airplanes for noise is easy. Actually, even I can
| easily make the case that chainsaws for clearing ice-felled trees is
| more of an imperative than almost any GA flying that is done other than
| organ transplants.
|
| Matt

[Morgans[_2_]]

"Jim Macklin" > wrote in message
...
> The standard square point dirt shovel is best for snow, it will also chop
> ice. It won't break your back either. The big blade snow shovels work
> fine
> with 1/2 inch of snow, but are nearly useless with a 2-3 foot drift.
Not that I have had to shovel much snow here in NC, but I did living near
Lake Erie, long ago.

I like the new snow shovels with the funky handles that allow you to work
standing up straight. I have a very bad back, (two unsuccessful surgeries)
so that is the first consideration!
A spud bar and a flat scraper is what I use on ice.

Best of all, in NC, if you wait one or two days, 90% of the time, the snow
will remove itself!
--
Jim in NC

[Morgans[_2_]]

"C J Campbell" > wrote

>We do have the water and mud cleared out of the house now, mostly, and the
>driveway is finally clear of the 18 inches of muck that was deposited on
>it.
>
> Several of the neighbors are using portable generators or tractors, trying
> to clear silt deposited almost a month ago.
>
> Count your blessings.

Indeed I shall, CJ.

If a person thinks he has it bad, look around, and he can always find
someone worse off.

Did it force you to move out, and if so, are you back in yet?

A few years ago, a guy down the street lived by a small stream that would
occasionally back up when the water was up, because of a bridge built with
two small of a culvert.

It was a split foyer, so the front door was above the high water mark. The
garage doors were not, so the water would rush in underneath and around the
garage doors, and put a foot or so of water in the lower level.

The owner wanted to know if I had any solutions, and I thought outside of
the box and came up with one.

I made a 2 foot tall temporary dike out of 2 x 6 and plywood, and drilled
into the floor and installed lag bolts, and lag bolted some angle iron into
the wall beside the garage door and bolted through the dike. I put some
thick closed cell rubber weather strip material on the dike where it
contacted the wall and the floor.

All the owner had to do when it looked like possible flooding, was to drag
out the dikes, and bolt them down. He has used it a few times, and said it
worked like a charm, with barely a little water getting around it, but
easily sucked up with a wet vac.

So, thinking out of the box can pay off. I wish you strength of body and
spirit, and determination to make it past this stretch of happenings, and a
return to normal life.
--
Jim in NC

[LWG]

I bought a snowblower attachment for my string trimmer. I looked at thing
in the store, and thought that can't possibly work- it looks like a toy. To
my surprise, it is fantastic for light work. I have a 150 ft driveway with
a 20% slope, and I've done the whole thing in a few minutes with up to 4" of
snow. I was amazed at how well it worked.

> I like the new snow shovels with the funky handles that allow you to work
> standing up straight. I have a very bad back, (two unsuccessful
> surgeries) so that is the first consideration!
> A spud bar and a flat scraper is what I use on ice.

[C J Campbell[_1_]]

On 2007-12-26 17:55:40 -0800, "Morgans" > said:

>
> "C J Campbell" > wrote
>
>> We do have the water and mud cleared out of the house now, mostly, and the
>> driveway is finally clear of the 18 inches of muck that was deposited on
>> it.
>>
>> Several of the neighbors are using portable generators or tractors, trying
>> to clear silt deposited almost a month ago.
>>
>> Count your blessings.
>
> Indeed I shall, CJ.
>
> If a person thinks he has it bad, look around, and he can always find
> someone worse off.
>
> Did it force you to move out, and if so, are you back in yet?

We spent one night at friends. You really find out who your friends
are. We had more than 30 people here who just showed up over a period
of two weeks and cleaned everything up. One thing that slowed me up was
my pressure washer chose that moment to go on the fritz, so I had to
get it repaired quick.

What really concerns me are some of the neighbors who have gone south
for the winter. I am sure they have no concept of what their house
looks like. About a mile down the road is a house with a carport with a
beautiful '70s GTO parked in it -- and it has baseball size gravel
pushed up all around it up to the windows. Now, that is just plain
heartbreaking.



--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor

[C J Campbell[_1_]]

On 2007-12-26 17:36:46 -0800, "Morgans" > said:

>
>
> Best of all, in NC, if you wait one or two days, 90% of the time, the snow
> will remove itself!

That is true around here in the Puget Sound area, too! Actually, our
weather is often compared to that of Atlanta, GA, only not so hot in
the summer. We get more rain, especially last year. :-)
--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor

[John Mazor[_2_]]

"LWG" > wrote in message
. ..
>I bought a snowblower attachment for my string trimmer. I looked at thing in the store,
>and thought that can't possibly work- it looks like a toy. To my surprise, it is
>fantastic for light work. I have a 150 ft driveway with a 20% slope, and I've done the
>whole thing in a few minutes with up to 4" of snow. I was amazed at how well it worked.

Which model is that?

[LWG]

Ryobi.

"John Mazor" > wrote in message
news:vWwej.11474$DG4.1909@trnddc04...
>
> "LWG" > wrote in message
> . ..
>>I bought a snowblower attachment for my string trimmer. I looked at thing
>>in the store, and thought that can't possibly work- it looks like a toy.
>>To my surprise, it is fantastic for light work. I have a 150 ft driveway
>>with a 20% slope, and I've done the whole thing in a few minutes with up
>>to 4" of snow. I was amazed at how well it worked.
>
> Which model is that?
>
>