Ok, I do understand that people need to cut their lawn. Fine. If you only have one night available to cut it due to your work schedule, well that sucks but whatever. But my neighbor is home every single night.
Last night I had a big formal outdoor dinner party and my neighbor thought nothing of running all three of these loud frickin machines The.Entire.Fucking.Time. 3 solid hours. It ruined our party. No one could hear themselves think.
Today I mentioned this to several cow-orkers and just got blank looks. Like, what?
WTF? Does the average person not realize that these machines are loud and obnoxious? They may be needed to cut the grass, but to not even realize that the noise is unpleasant?
Some people think that if a behavior doesn’t bother THEM, then it shouldn’t bother YOU. This holds true for all sorts of behaviors. Some people like to hear little kids being noisy in public. Others don’t. The first group thinks that the second group are horrid humans. Some people love to blast their car stereos, no matter where they are, no matter what time it is. And if some other people don’t like it, that’s just tough.
Is it possible that this person has some unresolved issue with you? Perhaps I’m off base, but it couldn’t hurt to ask him/her over to your place for a beer and possibly bring it up gently*.
*I’m only suggesting walking on eggshells because many mortgages are 30 years long and you may have this neighbor for a very long time.
To the folks who wondering if my neighbor did this on purpose, no, I don’t think so. We get along fine. He was invited to the party but declined, he knew it was a family thing but would have been welcome to drop by.
My rant is actually with the cow-orkers, ALL of whom simply did not get the concept that lawnmowers. weedeaters, etc are LOUD. And that LOUD is not pleasant. Are most people just so used to this crap that they are deaf now? Like I said I am not saying people should not be able to cut their lawns but for chrissake, you should at least be aware of the fact that the noise you are making doing so IS obnoxious…right?
I’ll second both of these. It’s possible that he didn’t realize it was bothering you/the party. If you didn’t ask him to stop, he probably didn’t figure it was that big a deal. That he has no problem with you (by your account), knew there was a party, and did it anyways reinforces that for me.
** How do people not understand that lawnmowers/weedeaters/leafblowers are loud and obnoxious?**
Because there are a lot of ignorant self-centered obnoxious twits in the world.
Many are also madly in love with their cellphones and think nothing of consummating that relationship repeatedly at staggeringly loud volume in public settings.
Such people can be educated, but the voltage requirements are daunting.
If you get along fine with your neighbour, why didn’t you drop over for a moment and remind him gently of your backyard party and the noise level? Even if you invited him, chances are it just slipped his mind.
I take public transit to work most days, and the fella that has me feeling the most stabby on the way back lately is a young pup that talks at length, and with projection that would make any drama coach proud, about the stock market. For the entire trip, which is about a half-hour. Every day.
This would be less annoying if he wasn’t palpably ignorant on the subject, and somehow simultaneously sounding like he’s trying very hard to be properly pretentious while maintaining the typical speech patterns of a glue-huffing teenage boy. I’m pretty sure that there isn’t anyone on the other end of the line, either.
I’m considering printing up a little card with elaborate gold leaf script:
…but that dig is probably about twenty years too old for him.
Several folk ask if you asked him to stop. Yeah, you probably should have. I remember one time that guests were about to arrive and the guy behind me and one over cranked up his leaf blower. I asked him if he was going to be using it for a while and he assured me that he’d be done shortly. But what kind of neighborhoods do you guys live in where it is not pretty easy to see if your next door neighbor is hosting a big formal outdoor dinner party?
I REALLY dislike my neighbors on both sides, yet I would refrain from mowing my lawn or using power tools outside if they were entertaining outside.
How hard would it have been for you to leave your gathering, grab a beer, stroll over and say, "I brought you a cold one in the hope you’ll take a pause for the cause, as I’m entertaining in my yard just now.
If you’re on good terms with him, and he was invited to drop by, you should be able to pull this off and it sounds like he’d have surely accepted.
I also vote it slipped his mind. I zone out when I do yard work so relying on him to notice might not be the ticket either.
I don’t think we should have to ask these people to stop! Three hours? What for do you need to run it three hours? How fucking big is your lawn? It is rude and obnoxious to run any sort of power equipment for three hours in a quiet neighborhood. Do people not know this?
All that being said, you still should have asked him. All too often we have to do things we shouldn’t have to do.
