repost: https://hexbear.net/post/2052540
this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2024
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chapotraphouse
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My most reactionary opinions all stem from selfish people being annoying as hell in loud ways.
Vehicles (often illegally) modified to be louder than normal solely to be annoying is probably my top one.
The other worse noise in the world is the near constant droning from 8am-8pm in suburban areas of lawnmowers/leaf blowers/edgers/etc. Everyone individually mowing their individual lawns with their individual lawnmowers on their individual schedules. Lawns are the stupidest fucking things on earth. Insane waste of resources and a huge source of annoyance for literally everyone who has to exist around them
Hate. Let me tell you how much I have come to hate the leafblower.
Seriously just use a fucking rake, I like using a fucking rake, I like sweeping, I like the silent meditativeness involved in using these things and getting the job done slower, who gives a shit? It's not a job worth doing and it's certainly it's not worth the sonic enshittification.
Or at the very least, don't use it in the early morning on a weekend. "Early bird gets the worm" fuck you you've gotten the weekday we all have to slave away at 8 in the morning despite our circadian rhythm, let me have two days were I don't have to wake up at 7 in the morning.
Some guy was cutting grass in my neighborhood at 7:30am the other day.
I really fucking hate everything sometimes because on one hand I kinda know if I went out there and acted like normal person and was polite enough and said "hey, man... it's 7:30. Why? Can't this wait until maybe 9 or 10am?" he'd probably just say sorry and sure for next time. Because a lot of people being assholes are just oblivious or not thinking at all in my experience.
But it's one of those annoyances that's so temporary, and so small yet seems so big at the moment. It feels obvious to me that a person should avoid making loud noises at 730 or 8 and I think I end up getting into a spiral of "it's not so much the individual act, it's the fact that I have to go outside and explain to another human that he's basically running a vibration, ear-fucking machine outside my window while I'm sleeping or otherwise in a "peaceful" state of the day." Like if I ever made loud noises at 730 I'd feel ashamed for the entire day. It's incredible to me that other people apparently totally lack this ability. I wonder how they'd feel on the receiving end of the annoyance, but I also have found that some people also don't care on that end of things which is wild to me. Like people who can live in apartments and have a car alarm go off daily and just ignore it. I have met these people. And I'm just like holy fuck I guess you either develop a part of your brain to fully not hear that or you end up on the news. Shit's crazy to me.
I once sat next to a guy on a bus who was blasting music from his phone. It finally became too much and I asked him to put in some earphones maybe? I was fully expecting some psychotic reaction, but he just went "oh yeah, sure thing" and then put in earphones and I was just sitting there like "???? You had these the whole time, and you were chill about the request indicating you understand its annoying to hwar your music blasted from shitty phone speakers on a crowded bus, but you still did it???? What???" Like he was so nice about it, but just the fact I had to ask him made the act so weird. Those interactions can really get on my nerves
Maybe he thought you liked the music? He was just sharing the vibes instead of keeping them all too himself
I actually have started telling myself this (in my head) when someone has their car music, and the bass especially, blowing out windows at traffic lights.
"Wow, he wanted to share this sick beat with me. It sucks, but that's a nice gesture." It does work to a degree to just assume the other person is just really a nice, normal person and enthusiastically spreading music that they genuinely believe everyone else enjoys.
lmao I doubt it. There's some people that just blast their tunes on public transport for some reason, it's odd. But I was actually misremembering, he wasn't blasting music, he was watching tiktoks.
I suggested to people around me to switch to battery mowers , which had a reputation of sucking ass many years ago that its never managed to shed, but one guy caved and bought a Chinese egopower and the rest saw it be better in noise and power and also ended up getting similar ones. Now I can enjoy weekends without the constant 2 stroke drone of gas mowers. Also less exhaust fumes in the air which is nice.
Doesn't solve the issue of wasting this giant plot of land that could be used for native flowers or gardening or growing herbs and veggies, but its better than nothing.
I regret not getting an electric mower. Definitely will when the next time comes. I got all electric for everything else. I picked up a bunch of dewalt outdoor stuff during some sale years ago because I was in "battery ecosystem" with their drill and impact driver. I was highly skeptical, but i got the trimmer (use it for edging too if I give enough shits... which is like once a year) and it's literally better than any gas powered trimmer I ever used for my parents as a kid. Those pieces of shit spewing burned oil in your mouth... this thing is nearly silent except when it's chopping the shit out grass. I have some of 2A batteries and one of them is enough for me to get all the way around my fence and other places. I got like a small tree branch/bush trimmer too which works great for the intended purpose... don't try to cut down saplings though... I got an electric leaf blower to clean dirt and grass clippings from my walking areas. It's definitely loud as fuck but still not nearly as loud as a gas engine. Still just as powerful.
That's what honestly surprised me because I had little experience with electric replacements for traditionally 2 stroke lawn stuff. I expected it all to kinda work but mostly just be frustrating and it's really not. So when the mower starts shitting its ass I'll have to do some digging and find a good electric replacement and be done with small engines forever hopefully. Not to convince the "pros" who have riding mowers the size or a small car just to mow lawns the same size as mine... at 8am, on a Saturday. Shit like that really makes me understand Rand Paul's neighbor and that whole incident.
I can practically guarantee those large riding mowers could be converted to electric. But then the issue would be converting the overcompensating suburban lawn care company owner (not the poor asshole cutting grass in full sun all day) to electric because it's "gay and for pussies." That's the general response or vibe I get when I tell people I'm planning on covering my roof in solar panels. One guy literally said "you're into that... solar stuff, huh?" Like a Hank Hill response. "I sell non renewable produced electricity and non renewable electricity accessories... That's how you can know I ain't gay." I always have to tell people like "why do you give a shit what produces the energy? It's cheaper and you don't have to be cucked to an uncontrollable unregulated electric company." "Yeah, but solar sounds gay... and Chinese..."
You know what the true test of strength and potency is? Not using any external supply of energy to do the job.
As a bonus, it costs zero in gas/electricity, motor doesn't wear out, battery doesn't wear out, basically cannot malfunction.
This post was made by rotary mower gang
Btw those DeWalt strimmers can develop a common fault eventually. I took one apart for a friend after it started cutting out. I took the bottom apart and cleaned it all – no fault down there.
It's up in the handle. There's a connection between two blue cables. It lays next to what looks like a transformer. So it gets hot and melts the plastic coating for the connection. I'm still trying to figure out what to replace it with. Probably solder and heat shrink. Maybe a metal crimp? Another plastic connector block well probably just melt again. I just need to borrow or pick up a soldering iron from somewhere.
Anyway, thought you might like the info on case yours starts cutting out. This one was cutting out here and there for a couple of weeks before it stopped completely.
As for the mower, I'm no pro but when I rent somewhere with a lawn I use a hand push mower. It's quicker, easier, and results in better grass than an electric imo. Even with bigger lawns tbh. They're also practically silent and while you might run out of energy, it won't. I find they've got their own momentum, though, so it's not really any more difficult than walking up and down with a non-self-propelled gas mower. Something to consider.
Hmm, I'll have to keep an eye on the trimmer. Tbh if it dies early, I guess I'll just have shitty edges for a few years.
I didn't mean to suggest they're not good tools, sorry! You've bought a good one. Just wanted to let you know that if/when it does break, it's an easy fix if you know where to look. In my mind, that's a positive, as many machines are made to be unfixable. This one that I'm talking about lasted for three years using two 4Ah batteries back to back a couple of times a month.
My top concern in switching to electric lawn equipment is removable battery storage in the winter, and battery degregation/range concerns.
I bought a used 4 stroke lawnmower from someone moving away, and it mows my whole lawn.
Considering the rate at which my laptop battery deteriorated, I don't think the lawn mower battery would last 2 years if I want to do my whole lawn at once.
Electric replacements for 2 stroke stuff is definitely way better, I love my electric trimmer/edger. It's easier to charge a battery than mix the oil/gas and smell all that purposely burned oil.
I hope you live somewhere you can sell that solar energy back to the grid, batteries are the worst part of electrifying stuff. I wonder if anyone's built a water tower in their backyard for energy storage. Pump it up during the day, release the water down into a cistern at night.
Yeah, we can sell electricity back but I looked into it at some point and I believe they buy it for less than they sell it...a lot leas, IIRC. You should end up making money but in reality still end up with a (obviously substantially smaller) electric bill.
What a great country, btw. Instead of opening the flood gates and sucking individual owners who can and want to go solar, the states are like "woah woah woah hold up there, buddy. You still gotta pay the electric company that we totally are actually "regulating" and not them regulating us..."
I think the dream for these electric companies is you still pay them basically what you pay now, but you produce the electricity via solar, you sell it to them at 1/5 of the actual rate, and they resell it to businesses at an even more jacked up rate. They're just another level of rent seeking... literally everything boils down to scams on top of scams.
My areas REQUIRES everyone pay a small monthly fee to the natural gas company (private but "regulated" and oh btw the cost of gas is going up I think they said 25% this summer when no one is watching so it's all baked in for the winter...). So even if you had full solar or dug a geothermal thing for heating, still gotta pay that fee for the convenience of potentially being able to have natural gas. It's in some local law or whatever... amazing country.
All roads lead to scams when they should lead to "fuck you, that's a public utility now."
I'm surprised they don't decline on the basis of battery charging. The batteries work for individual home owners, you can usually do your single-occupancy-home yard and charge the battery for next month or w/e, but these companies do apartments, businesses, highways, they might being doing yards that can't be done by one person, or on one battery, or they might be doing 12 yards in one day.
I don't know the logistics of switching from "fill up this portable gas tank at the start of the shift" to juggling batteries and charging from the back of a truck, you'll probably need to be able talk numbers to them that debunk the presumptions they will have about the upfront costs of switching hardware (progressively or all at once) and waiting around (unpaid standing around) for batteries to charge.
A handful of 5Ah batteries in rotation could work if they can rely on a mains connection to recharge them. They'll also need to cool in between or I assume they won't last long. Expensive up front cost.
Somewhat Verbally Abusive "Kill Your Lawn" Instructional Video Nice - Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
every week my complex does their landscaping starting at like 7-8am (no noise ordinance against that apparently!) and then the neighboring complex does it the next day. definitely love to not be able to sleep with the windows open when the weather is nice.
What if you only mow once the grass is so tall the city could fine you?
This is more of a systemic critique than individual. I also have to mow my lawn, etc. Having wild growing grass and weeds everywhere would also suck. Ideally, I suppose, you bulldoze all this shit away, build high density, high quality apartments where people all have private areas without disturbing or disturbed. And there would be large public green areas, maintained by unionized city workers on a regular schedule. Lawns are kinda like everyone having a tiny but much shittier park. All this stuff just feels normal because we grew up around it
bro it's literally half of our symbol
I absolutely hate that one. Why do you need to remove the thing that makes your motor make less noise? You're in the middle of the city! The amount of absolute lack of brain cells needed to do that is astounding to me. They think they're cool! They think people look at them and think "wow what a cool guy!" They do not understand people think they're losers, it's wild.