photos by L.E. Swenson
9:45 a.m. Saturday. Morning broke to the sound of a chainsaw, a wood chipper and multiple leaf blowers. Welcome to Suburbia. I was hoping to sleep in today and recover from my cold. No such luck.
The cats are simultaneously fascinated and terrified by the sounds.
Quincy supervises (photo by E. Herd)
The overpowering surround-sound makes me officially involved. I am on a mission to discover what is going on. Lorin tells me it’s a wood chipper two houses down. I peek out different windows in the house and go into the back and front yard to observe.
A man wearing ear mufflers is rappelling down the side of a decapitated tree. Ten to twenty minutes later: the rappelling man and another guy wearing ear mufflers are sawing the trunk off, then sawing the trunk into smaller chunks for the chipper.
It is now 11:56 and the noise continues. The smell of freshly mown grass. One cannot escape THE NOISE. Tomorrow is Mother’s Day, so I suppose everyone’s lawns must be pristine, and dead trees must be felled.
In circumstances like these, I do have options. I can: (a) rebel, by running through the streets yelling, “Shut up, you machine-obsessed suburbanites!” and throw rocks at the machines, which would make me appear mentally ill and/or un-American. This would result in my being carted off in an ambulance or police car; (b) leave the premises; (c) join in; or (d) wear ear plugs. Dishes and laundry must be washed, so it’s option (c). The dishwasher is from another era and is rather loud so it drowns out some of the wood chipper and leaf blower sounds.
If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.
It is 12:27 p.m. The sound of men yelling at each other over the machines adds to the atmosphere of weekend harmony.
Happy Mother’s Day, all!
Suburban Hobo 
Happy Mothers Day!
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Laughing. You tell a good story, Erica.
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Thanks, Matt.
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Noise pollution affects me more with every passing year. I think the world is getting louder and I’m getting more sensitive. A bad combo. As usual, you manage to make good humor out of almost everything. Hope you have a very happy Mother’s Day – and a quiet one.
xx
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I agree, Cheryl. It’s almost as if people accept that noise is a given. They were at it with the wood chipper and chainsaw till about 7 pm – had 2 trees to fell. Hope you have a peaceful Mother’s Day too. xo
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Happy, Happy, Happy…
‘Nuttin’ like an early Sat. a.m. cacophony to dispel all dreams of sleeping’ in….
The chipper instantly brought to mind a memory most macabre, about applying that device in
ways which it was never intended…
L.A. 1990, working as the stand-in for the lead, on the set of “Stepfather 2”, …or, #3 , ‘b-horror movie to the max – was reminded of scene where one of the characters gets fed into the chipper – took a few hours into the early a.m. to get the shot…..but man, the effects guys really got off shooting blood out of the shredder splattering the wall.
I have never looked at shredders the same way since…..
Happy Mom’s Day n’ Happy B-Day to all our Taurus friends-
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I only saw the first Stepfather movie. Sounds like good, gory fun!
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The rule out here in the country is that if you can’t beat them, you are not trying hard enough. It’s probably time to tune your Harley.
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Guess I didn’t try hard enough. Shut all th windows despite the warmth and turned up the volume on the Soundscapes channel.
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I’m with Cheryl. The world is getting noisier and I’m more sensitive….even the slightest beep of a car horn irritates me. We’re all being pushed over the edge with few places of silence left. I hope you were able to get some rest-and heal from that cold. Feel better!!!
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I couldn’t find a place to signal a Like on your About page, so I’ll leave it here. Make that several Likes for it.
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Thanks. I’ll have to figure out how to set up likes for it.
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Oh, yes, when WordPress is inscrutable, it is indeed inscrutable–and not to be scruted with.
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