OK, I mowed my lawn at 8am this morning (Sunday) ... archived

let me add: if i am out of line, what's the concensus on when i am allowed to start mowing? I am happy to admit that i was in the wrong if most people feel that way ...

I think you were an hour early. I think after 9 would be more appropriate for a weekend morning. Although, I'm wondering why he waited until 8:40 to say something. At that point I would've just let it go.

well, i was wearing ear protection, so he apparently had been yelling out his window for awhile. what kind of person revels in the agony of yelling out their window at a guy that is obviously wearing ear protection (they look like oversized headphones)?

I think 8am is definitely too early on a Sunday.

i agree. i would have been pissed. definitely should have waited at least until 9.

When I was a kid, our neighborhood had a "no lawn mowing on Sunday" rule. I'm not sure how it was established; my dad just told me not to do it.

I think there is a town ordinance on the time you can start mowing. But, whatever it is, 8 am on a Sunday sounds too early for me and I am often an early riser.

Also, I don't know why you need to throw in the nasty little barbs at your neighbor on a public message board. If you work so much, how is your not having met him mean he's a recluse? He said he works nights, so that also explains his behavior. Why bring that up anyway? Do people on your street need to know you before they protest your waking them up on a Sunday morning?

Sounds like you are a very stressed out and reaching your limit. If I was a psychologist (and I don't even play one on TV) I'd guess that this was about something other than lawn mowing or cranky neighbors.

nan, i am definitely not reaching my limit. i know and have a great relationship with all my neighbors ... i was out there mowing my lawn, and the guy approaches me all revved up. i literally felt like i was gonna have to protect myself on my own property. that's what i'm worked up about ... the way he approached me, he deserves to get skewered on this message board.

i wasn't mowing my lawn at that time it to piss anyone off ...

Well I was not there, but 8 am on a Sunday is waaaaaaaay too early. The guy probably figured you should know better. I don't even make phone calls until at least 9 or 10 unless I know the people I'm calling will be up.

Also -- I think you should go over and make nice. Maybe you can both laugh about it and be friends. If he still acts like a jerk, than you can skewer him on the board.

you're a kind person, nan; i am not an 8am mower anymore, but i'm probably not gonna make nice with this guy ...

so, i'm the bad guy ... is it concensus, or have only the nay-sayers responded so far?

8 is too early. Even if woken up, most like quiet during their morning coffee. 9:30 sounds good.

We have two young kids and are up before 8am on the weekends. However, I enjoy the quiet of the neighborhood at that time and make sure my kids don't yell if we go outside early. I really couldn't imagine a neighbor mowing their lawn at 8am. However, I think the level of acceptance changes when you are dealing with snowbolowing....

Sorry Leny, it's always been pretty well understood that 8 AM is too early. I also think that the town ordinance refers to construction and other work prior to 9 AM.Even if awake, I'd have been pissed, but I would have asked sweetly :smile: especially since you have a young child and a busy life. Not to excuse his aggressive behavior, but your neighbor sounds like he's suffering from sleep deprivation which can do really crazy things to your temperament (first-hand experience).
Better luck next weekend.

also, he must have been very frustrated that for 40 minutes you continued with your headphones on and couldn't hear him. who wants to have to get out of bed and go outside to confront an inconsiderate neighbor? that would have burned my ass. you used headphones but your neighbors had to listen without. nice.

i would be thankful he didn't go more berserk.

having spent a large chunk of my life working through Saturday nights while the rest of the world was partying: any noise before 9 on a Sunday is too much. there are usually EPA/by-laws (ordinances) around it, I believe many were established in the 1970s and 80s. You probably would find that even church bells don't ring before 9 on a Sunday. And I have been reduced to tears with frustration at the noise and exhaustion that results from lack of decent sleep.

My shift would finish around 7 am; I would go to fresh food markets and do some shopping on the way home so I could wind down, and eat a 'supper' breakfast before going to bed. So, like your neighbour, I probably didn't get home until 8.00-ish. Like your neighbour I probably spent a good length of time debating with myself whether to make a scene, ring the police or try to whimper myself to sleep. Ear plugs don't work on something like this kind of noise, for me. Plus the noise sets off neighbourhood dogs which makes the disturbance worse.

A good guide to noise levels is that if you need to wear protection from that noise, it's too loud for when other people are sleeping. You could have raked your cuttings until after 9.30 and finished off with a blower then (his sleep is probably deep enough to cope by then).

Imagine if your children were the ones needing to sleep while someone was being noisy for an extended time at a usually quiet hour. Wouldn't you get angry? And wouldn't that kind of anger seem out of proportion to the one 'callously' making the noise?

You don't need to be friends with the nieghbour. But an apology and recognition of the inappropriateness of the hour would be a courteous gesture.

8 am.. on a Sunday.. Uhhh
Too early.. Way too early...

ok. i'm the bad guy ... and may i say that i didn't give an entire transcript of the exchange (even though it felt like it), but i apologized and turned off the blower. there is no excuse, no matter what the situation, for this guy's behavior. do you guys really think he earned the right to an apology?

so, 9am is acceptable?

Maybe not an apology. I would ignore it, but wait until at least 9 I would even say 10.
( This coming from a girl, who went to sleep at at 4.30 am and woke up at 7.30 am and only slept 5 hours the night before )

How about this for equivocating?

8:00 a.m. Sunday morning is awfully early to be out making a lot of noise. However, there are polite ways to ask people to turn things down a notch, and from your account, your neighbor did not choose one of these ways.

With a 15 month-old and a job, I imagine that there doesn't seem to be enough time to get anything done.....but also, I would imagine that you would be sympathetic to sleep deprivation as well. :smile:

leny,

I really don't think I would feel like apologizing to this guy either. But there is something awesome about it if you do. It really makes it clear which one of you is the a-hole.

I'd probably avoid the face-to-face apology. Maybe send him something nice, with a note. "Will mow at 10 from now on."

Don't make the gift earplugs though.:shocked:

I've got neighbors who are so considerate about the noise they _never_ mow their lawns. They're the best!

Leny...I agree with Jersey Boy...be the bigger person. It's not worth it. And while his behavior was not nice, you never know what his story was...maybe he was sick or had just worked a night shift or was out drinking the night before and was horribly hung over. In any case, I would have had a fit as well if my neighbor was mowing at 8am on a Sunday...and I can't guarantee I would have been nice about it either. It's really way too early...WAAAYYYYY too early.

Maybe a nice note would be good...just drop it in his mailbox. Then you've taken the high road and apologized and if he wants to continue to be an a-hole, then that's on him.

ok. thanks for the posts. i've thrown the gods another half hour, and am now a 9:30am mower.

Posted By: leny ~8:40am and asks me to stop (through the use of a smart-ass comment) while i was blowing the grass off of my driveway.

I agree that 8:00 is a tad early to mow the lawn, but I would venture that the straw that broke your neighbor's back was the blower. A lawnmower is annoying an an early hour,but it is a drone that can be blocked out. A leaf blower, on the other hand, is very noisy and jarring. I agree with Joanne, and I would think anything that requires you to wear hearing protection, has to be recognized as noise pollution for those around you. You neighbor was tired and cranky, and obviously was sensitive to what he thought of as your inconsideration.

You might bring over a nice bottle of wine or a basket of cookies, allow bygones to be bygones, and tell him you will try to be more considerate,if he will too. That's what "being neighborly " means.

Calli

I think the big thing here is the use of the leaf blower at such an early hour. Leaf blowers, even brand new ones are still very very loud, way louder then a lawn mower, the old ones are downright deafening. As far as i'm concerned, any activity that requires ear protection is going to be unbelievably noisy(and I like loud music) and probably very disruptive at an early hour. I can imagine that if I was a night worker who was probably aroused by your lawn mower and then prevented from going back to sleep by a leaf blower, i'd be pretty unhappy as well. That said it probably wasn't right for him to be a smart ass to you, but I can see where he was coming from.

The good thing is that you've recognized what set off the situation and are willing to correct it. I'd probably also go over and appologize to the guy and inform him of how you've decided to change your schedule to be more respectful of his attempts to sleep. I'm sure he'd appreciate any dialogue that he could have with you about the issue.

Mowing, I don't care what time it is, it doesn't bother me. I'm used to suburban noise, lawn mowers, kids playing, etc, I just zone it out. I work odd shifts, sometimes days, sometimes overnights. Because I work odd shifts, I understand that I can't expect the world to stop when I need to sleep during the middle of the day, so I wear ear plugs and also run a fan in the bedroom for white noise.

Leaf blowers do bother me, but they bother me no matter what time you're using it, regardless of whether I'm sleeping or not. I just don't like leaf blowers. In fact, leaf blowers are worse if I'm awake, since I wouldn't be wearing the earplugs to drown them out.

You didn't say what town you live in (or maybe I just wasn't paying attention:shamed but call town hall and find out what time the weekend ordinances are. I might not sound too neighborly here, but I say go by the ordinance, not the neighbors for this one. One neighbor might not want it early in the morning because they're trying to sleep, whereas another might not want it in the afternoon because they're trying to have a backyard barbecue. You can't please everyone.

Well, if you got a manual mower, you could mow anytime. The clippity sound THEY make is actually kind of soothing. AND you would be getting a workout at the same time, so you'd be doing two things at once!

I'm another person who likes to hear leaf blowers... never. Can't you leave the clippings on your lawn? It's supposed to be better for the lawn, actually.

eab, just posted and deleted the same thing. I use a push mower. But Leny said he hadn't mowed in a while. Push mower's don't work when the grass is too high. Also, long grass clippings tend to clump and kill the grass beneath them.

He could have raked though.:devil:

Why did you think it was OK to do anything on Sunday morning before 9AM that required hearing protection? You owe your entire neighborhood an appology, not just the person who had enough nerve to tell you it was unacceptable.

Mowing is just white noise for me - chirping birds are more likely to wake me up than a mower - plus I'm an early riser, so my 2 cents is very biased in this case.

I don't see anything wrong with mowing anytime any day after 8 am - I think the town ordinance is anytime after 8 too.

If it is going to cause a rift with your neighbor, I wouldn't mow until after 9 am, it's not worth the agita for either of you.

Maybe you can weed or plant things if you're wide awake and ready to go.