Today, Mrs Ned had a brief, but unusual fit. It happened like this: we were returning from our twice-weekly wine tasting duties and had to pass a doctors office with the usual double-wide parking lot. Across our path came a BEING in hard hat, mask and ear plugs, with chartreuse vest, armed with a leaf blower with a snout that Mr Snuffalopagus could only envy. He was engaged in blowing dust off the vast parking lot into the nearby street, where it would in time be picked up by winds and tires and returned to the parking lot. Not content with this, for good measure he occasionally blew dust off the border of mulch with which the parking lot was ringed. Clouds of brown dust rose into the evening air, to be carried into the faces of nearby pedestrians.
The net effect of this activity was to waste gas, and to annoy passers-by with the resultant air pollution, noise and dust. This 'dust' by the way, consists, according to the California Air Resources Board, of insect and bird feces, toxics derived from car exhaust and tire wear, and allergens from pollinating plants. A toxic brew if ever there was one. And for what earthly purpose was this activity being carried out? None at all. No one in history has ever complained about invisible dust on a parking lot, and if they had they would have probably been instantly seized and subjected to psychiatric 'treatment' for their own good.
So multiply this moronic activity by hundreds of thousands of times each day, and you get an idea why this country has 5% of the world's people but uses 25% of its oil. And much of it is in polluting, wasteful, pointless, useless, infuriating activity like this.
As Mrs Ned observed, "maybe this is one reason why the rest of the world hates us."
I've been looking around for one of those bumper stickers with the image of a leaf blower in a circle with a red line through it. I'm reminded of a scene in a Star Trek movie where one of the characters - when presented with some sort of new breakthrough in gee gaws - remarks, "This unit serve no purpose."
ReplyDeleteI propose that anyone who wants to purchase and use a leaf blower must present themselves to the appropriate authority, show evidence of proper training, pay a hefty fee and then show cause that they have need of such a unit. Furthermore, any citizen should have the right to post notice on their property and place of business stating, "No leaf-blowers allowed under penalty of law", etc, etc, and etc.