Pursuant to Sammy’s complaints about the sounds of motorized lawn equipment, I thought I’d share with you the madness that was my life.
When we lived in Georgia, we rented base housing. This meant we had a small fenced-in backyard. I mean small, like a lot of people rolled out plastic grass and called it a day. We sold our lawnmower and either The Mister or Bubba used a weed-whacker on it or Housing mowed it during deployment.
There was a mulched bed in the front, where you could plant something to make your house your own. This is someone’s picture of a house that looks like our old one. We were the right side of a duplex.
That mulch bed was my small section of nature. Over the years, I planted many plants that claimed to be drought tolerant, but there were only four things that stood up to the constant heat and western sun: juniper, ground phlox, Mexican petunias, and zinnias. Fortunately, those last two brought butterflies and bumblebees.
In addition to these tiny spaces of our own, we had vast green spaces that were public. We had a lot of roundabouts and a few medians, but basically, it was newly-constructed, without shade, in the middle of a pine forest.
Sound reverb is real.
The houses were arranged in rectangles and within the block of homes, there was either a playground, or a field.
All public green spaces were tended by a variety of groundskeepers.
ALL DAY, EVERY DAY, CONSTANTLY, or so it seemed.
i don’t even know how these pictures were taken without showing groundskeepers…
We had mower guys, blower guys, and weed-whacker guys ALL THE TIME.
Add those guys to the trash and recycle collection noise, the motorcycle noise, and the ruckus of artillery. Hell, artillery is its own post. Maybe I’ll write about the booms tomorrow.
It was a loud place to live.
“That’s okay, Weed-Whacker Guy, my toddlers don’t really need a nap. I would love to listen to them fight and cry for the rest of the day.”
“Oh sure, 5am is the perfect time to blow sand to more desirable places!”
“I will never sleep-in, EVER!”
“Yes, I would love to watch television with the volume on 54!”
“I swear they just mowed this same place yesterday!”
“Hey, that’s great, they’re power-washing the house and mowing at the same time!”
And I’ll tell you what, I do believe they enjoyed making the noise. They smugly smiled, with their earplugs and their big trucks, towing their rattling equipment. Vroom, clang, clang, clang, “Here we come to wake the dead! AHAHAHA!”
Here, I hear the interstate. I’m citified, so it may as well be the sound of the ocean. So no, now that I live here in my nice, quiet, largely wooded neighborhood, I don’t get bothered when my neighbors mow. They all wait until mid-morning and they never, ever look happy to be doing it.
Have you ever lived where it’s excessively loud?
joeyfullystated 
How long did you have to endure this? It must have taken a toll…:(
I am sensitive to noise, no matter the volume. I cannot work in noisy places or sleep in noisy places. But I cannot say that I have ever had to live in a place like your Georgia with constant racket all the live long day.
A couple decades ago, I lived in an old neighbourhood and the houses were very close together. My bedroom window was a car’s width away from the neighbour’s dining room window. The same dining room where she kept her CD player. The same CD player that played the same tune over and over and over and OVER again: Whitney Huston’s “I’ll always love you.” At top volume.
The poor woman was mourning the loss of her husband, but man!
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SEVEN YEARS — I am not particularly noise sensitive.
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Was there anything about the south that was good? I mean, besides the sweet tea. In my first reaal job, I lived in Queens, NY on the service road of the Grand Central Parkway. The service road is three lanes, one direction but access to local streets. the Parkway is three more lanes each way but limited access. It did sound like the ocean but a 24-hr-per-day-non-stop-ocean. The good news was that “Park”way meant no trucks.
You guys are going to make me feel guilty about firing up that leaf-blower 🙂
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LOL Do you leaf-blow every day? Or before 10am?
Yes, there were good things. I wrote this post about it: https://jolenemottern.com/2013/12/17/things-i-miss-about-georgia/
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I’ll catch up on that post later. Thanks. No, I do not lead blow before 10am. I might mow closer to 9:00 if it’s ridiculously hot but my wife won’t let me make much noise. No, not everyday.
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I think you’re alright. It is really important to do it when it’s cooler, and then there are the days rain will come…So I think you’re doin a fine job.
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Maybe you could wear a sign “I know I’m annoying and I’m almost done.”
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When I was doing construction on my house, I asked permission to start early on the days that I really needed to.
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You’re way too considerate 😉
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Haha!
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Ugh, that sounds miserable, especially with small children. I live on a high-traffic street, but I’ll take the noise of passing cars over what you had to endure any day.
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Growing up, we lived with our backyard on a highway, so road noise was normal for us. We were accustomed to cars, trucks, sirens, etc. Until I stayed overnight with family in a rural part of New Jersey, I had no idea nighttime could be SO QUIET. I didn’t sleep a wink there.
When we moved (I was a teenager), we moved so that the same highway (but in a different area) was basically in our front yard. And so the noise was the same and it was comforting to me. After that, I moved out and wasn’t near a highway so I had to readjust…the house was the same but by then I was enjoying the quieter days and evenings (except the occasional airplanes overhead).
NOW we live near a highway and a fire-house, but it’s mostly the echo-reverb that brings us those noises and it’s very manageable most of the time.
The WORST is that there is a high school in the area that is always playing outdoor sports and/or their indoor activities…and the way our house is situated, we get a constant echo of the noises that makes it sound like they are in our backyard. It’s really irritating because you get the screaming announcer, the cheering, AND the band noise. But sadly, they do not fall under noise ordinances in our area…the ordinances were written AROUND the school activities. We can’t even SEE the school, it’s not accessible from our neighborhood and is actually on the FAR side of a major highway, but somehow we’re right in the pocket. WTH.
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That’s awful. The last house my parents lived in here was about an eighth of a mile from the high school, to the east, like 6 houses, turn the corner maybe 4 more houses from ours, but we seldom heard it. Ironically, when we lived about a mile from that same high school before, to the west, round the corner, down the road, past two huge intersections, a business park, some apartments, a housing addition — we heard the band practice and the football games quite well and frequently. The Mister and I lived in those apartments between the two, and NEVER HEARD A THING! So you’re right, it’s not always proximity. It’s strange the way sound travels, and it definitely works against some. (like you there)
One of my previous military neighbors posted a photo of her open window last week, telling us how much she enjoys suburban living, lol! SHE lived next to a tornado siren on post!
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That’s crazy about your school noise thing. We lived near a high school in our last house and sometimes we heard the band practicing, but that was it. We had no idea it was going to be this bad and somehow our bedroom is in the exact right spot for me to hear EVERYTHING. It doesn’t keep me awake at night but in the evenings when I’m in the room, I hear all the noises.
How do you ever get accustomed to living next to a tornado siren?!
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I don’t know. Probably best you never get used to tornado sirens!
I once had a train go right past my back patio, the fair train, every day, like on the hour, and eventually, I didn’t even hear it anymore. I slept through it!
Sorry about your bedroom noise tho. Man, that sucks.
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Personally, I’ve never heard a tornado siren, but I can imagine it’s not something you get used to! LOL
We used to sleep right through all the fire engines on the highway behind our house (literally could reach through the bushes and feel the asphalt)…
I could probably sleep through the school noises, it’s when I’m awake that it’s annoying!
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You don’t live in a tornado-prone area, I guess. Yeah, they’re crazy loud! Louder than fire trucks and quite…claws on a chalkboard-ish…can’t think of word.
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Anope, thankfully I’m not in an area THAT prone to tornadoes. We’ve had a few in nearby areas, but they are generally small and infrequent.
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You are SO right. They LOVE it!! They ALWAYS smile when they stick the earphones in and fire up the whacker. Oh lordy. They especially love blowing everywhere I’m walking or driving.
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I KNOW! I’m sorry you suffer like that!
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I live in a large square of houses so there is always lots of noise. Mowers, kids playing, music blasting; my next door neighbour either singing his head off at top blast when in a good mood, or shouting his head off when he’s not!
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How sad. How do you cope?
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Girl that is a brilliant post.
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Thanks 😀
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I lived on a Navy base down in P’cola and was living in the BEQ (Bachelor Enlisted Quarters) and every single Saturday morning the Blue Angels practiced. They were so close to our quarters I do so swear that I could see them drinking coffee in their jets. They were stationed on my base so you know we had to live through it year in and out. As for groundskeepers, yes too many of them to count. I still growl when I hear a mower at 0700 at my condo.
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I’ve spent some time in Pensacola. Blue Angels indeed.
& 7am is too early!
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I agree there should be noise ordinances and specific times required to be quiet. I used to hate when I babysat little ones, got them all down to sleep and the neighbor was either yelling to his wife, hard of hearing, or using power tools. I wonder what he was doing all the time with those power tools? Ha ha! No one was found chopped up, Joey, Thank Goodness!
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When we lived in our first apartment, I went upstairs to ask my neighbors if they were building something, since they’d been pounding on the walls for about 5 hours. She said they were hanging pictures.
For another another 3 hours, oh the banging.
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One year when I was working nights, my neighbor bought their teenager an ATV. We had to have a little neighborly chat.
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Egads! You are so right about the reverb noise. I think that’s part of the problem here – there are two lovely ponds outside and noise reflects off them. But The leaf blowers and weed whackers are the absolute worst. One is roaring right now 3 blocks away and it sounds like it’s under my window.
From now on I’m going to pretend that’s Dan outside and for ONE second I’ll be ok with the sound. (Poor Dan)
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LOL Poor Dan indeed! It’s the gas motors that make them so loud
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Oh god that would drive me crazy. (My sister says her husband is supposed to be getting switched to a base in Georgia soon, wonder if it’ll be the same one…)
When my husband and I first started living together, we rented an apartment. Omg. The dump trucks in the middle of the night, loud music, all the craziness. Sleep did not happen that often. At least we have our stories, like watching two different people set their vehicles on fire to try to get some insurance money.
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:O Holy wow!
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My short stint on base housing years ago in CA was exactly as you described! Coming from the east coast I had never even heard of a blower, never mind a blower guy! The. Worst.
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That would drive me crazy! We live in a very loud part of the world — Hong Kong, so there are a lot of cars etc. I don’t mind that as a general background noise, same as you I’m a city gal so it doesn’t bother me. But when some idiot revvs his car up the road making a massive roar of noise at 3am – I get pretty serious sleep deprivation rage (I take ages to fall asleep so getting woken up in the middle of the night screws my night of sleep up completely). grrr I’ve been having another convo about this with Sammy on her blog — it’s amazing how little people seem to be care about noise pollution considering how much of an impact it has
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Thank you for sharing! Yes, Hong Kong is always portrayed as loud, isn’t it? Good to know your side of things. I hate being awakened, too.
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Pingback: The Booms | joeyfullystated
Leaf blowers are the ones that drive me crazy. We have two neighbors that we truly like but every time a blade of grass, a speck of dirt or a Maple tree helicopter lands on their driveway, they head out and blow the entire driveway. I can shut the windows and dull the noise, but I continue to wonder why the need is there to start them up in the first place because let’s face it ‘outside’ doesn’t need to be as clean as inside. Or does it for some people? 🙂
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I wonder the same. I cannot imagine to where I would blow the maple propellers?!? Would I blow and then rake them into a dustpan? I find a rake works just fine, plus I get exercise.
I had a neighbor, long ago, who swept her drive every dry, warm day. She had the tidiest space ever. Myself, I kinda like the look of natural debris along the edges, be it pine needles, cottonwood, leaves, propellers, or locust petals…
Thanks for your comment 🙂
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What a noisy nightmare that must have been. I came back to living in the city after 20 years out in the country and it’s been difficult to readjust to all the noise – weekend early mornings are my favorite when all the city people are still asleep…
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I don’t think I’d cope well in the silence of the country, especially at night. Drew used to live in the country and when I’d go out there, I was always frightened. She was just so far from everyone and everything — very unnerving.
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oh my….I bet my husband won’t be considered for the best neighbor award. I’m reading this at 9:30 am on Sunday morning. He has been outside with his weed whacker for the last half hour. You know….get it done before it gets too hot. That was pretty nice looking base housing. I’ve been in some that were just pitiful.
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We were fortunate to live in the new. Or so we were told. I’ll complain about that house another day.
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Wow that sounded hideous. We have a neighbour who calls for her cat from 5am and whistles and rattles a tin for it also. Wakes us all up. I want to strangle her sometimes lol but she’s slightly nuts !
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The very worst thing in our Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood is when the scofflaw renters in the three small apartment houses interspersed with single-family homes across the street ignore our alternate-side-of-the-street parking laws in the winter, Joey. When it snows overnight, the plows are sent out. Our street immediately in front of the Little Bitty is too narrow for the plow to fit through with cars parked on both sides of the street. So plow driver stops at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 a.m., and blows his horn for a minute or two. If nobody comes out to move the car, the driver then bangs the massive plow blade up and down against the street numerous times, which not only makes an enormous thwack, but shakes our house like a scene from ‘San Andreas.’ This is awfully loud. It wakes me and my dear wife Karen and Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle, and makes it really hard to get back to sleep, what with noticing there’s been a snowstorm bad enough for the city to send out the plows overnight.
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That DOES sound unfortunate!
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Except in Paris that can be loud, I’ve been lucky to live away from major disturbing noises. Like you I hate the constant sounds of mowers and gardening equipment in general. The worse for me are the leaves blowers. Again I fee lucky to escape many annoying noises.
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