Racketeers

 The racketeers are at it this morning outside my window as I keyboard.  Today there are two leaf blowers on opposite lawns in this condo condensed area. The garden business is rampant and the sight of flat deck trucks with their loads of clanking miscellaneous gear is a common sight here. Little of it is actually used, but it goes along for the ride anyway. I have yet to see the folding ladder removed, or the seven rakes of various sorts applied. Most of the work involves machinery and if it can be ridden, it's the first choice. Volume is also a favorite. The more noise made, the happier the spending client is. Work sounds.  And the leaf blower is king in that department. There is almost no lawn to speak of at either of our sites, and hopefully they will disappear one day into some lovely lavender plots. But first, the single lady downstairs must get over her little hobby rows of florals that cost us a bundle in bedding plants proffered by her friends who own the garden shop, not to speak of the handsome gardener we have employed. But I digress. Seems we are supporting this lady's hobby but the condo life is a cooperative venture, thus nothing is said, let alone breathed, that might injure delicate resident egos. Back to the noise makers on their toy lawns. For over an hour these men have been walking about with their leaf blowers apparently blowing tiny strands of what is left over from the lawn cutting, another noise maker. What they are blowing, I have watched, and am mystified by. And where the very few fine little blades of grass go, is also a mystery because there is no catching apparatus. The grass thus flies about and everyone feels quite satisfied. The more noise the better reason to spend our maintenance money. Who asks questions? No condo owner wants to be labelled a "trouble maker". The two blowers seem to have a jazz contest much like the guitar players and piano buffs  during a riff. "My racket it bigger than your racket and lasts longer". One jazzes it up and the other joins in randomly. Then they have a duet. The blower guys have ear protectors on, but the rest of us have only our thin ear lobes. Seems unfair if not unhealthy. This activity goes on for hours and hours with the blower chaps circling our little lawn space repeatedly as though the first go round doesn't quite make for the hourly rate that they have contracted. Furthermore, they seem to enjoy what they do. Perhaps they are frustrated musicians, for all I know. There are noise bylaws in my small city by the sea, and the bylaw officer who evidently isn't activated until there is a complaint, is largely invisible. The noise bylaw doesn't apply to leaf blowers I take it. Cars whizzing by with their mega speakers treating us all to some brainless thumping, can be prosecuted for their offensive din, but the louder beings, the leaf blowers don't count. The offending cars are by in a moment, but the leaf blowers will be here for at least half a day at a time, and then reappear in a week or two, to do it all over again. Their noise is far worse than a passing motorcycle, a barking dog or a car speaker. The two blowers are revving down now so it must be coffee break in the offing. I might even attempt to take my coffee out on the deck while blessed peace for the moment, is happening.