Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Pet Peeve of the Day - October 10, 2007

If, like me, you live in a house in the suburbs with green lawns of grass, you probably have neighbors just like the one I have in the house behind us. The neighbors who obsessively water their lawn no matter what the weather.

Last night and all through this morning, it was raining off and on in my neighborhood. And yet this morning, with the ground still damp and the clouds still hovering threateningly in the sky above us, I could hear the sound of my neighbors' sprinkler in their backyward, the kind that shoots out a single pulsating stream of water as it spins around with that "tche tche tche tche tche tche tche tche t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t" sound.

I don't understand it. Why the fuck do they do it? We experienced rather copious amounts of rainfall during the night and it continued to rain this morning. Don't these people want to keep their water bills low?

I don't know how it is in other communities across America, but here in Nassau County, because we get our water from underground aquifers, we have to abide by what is known as the odd/even day rule. If your address is an even number, then you may water your lawn on an even numbered day, and if your address is an odd number, then you can water the lawn on odd numbered days. Of course, the law is biased towards odd numbered homes, because there are months where the last day is the 31st, so they get to water their lawns two days in a row. And as you probably guessed, my house has an even number.

Maybe my neighbors think "Well, today is our day to water the lawn, so by golly we're going to water it come rain or sunshine!" I don't know. It just does not strike me as rational to water one's lawn when it is raining. It makes about as much sense as putting on sun tan lotion when you are going to swim in an indoor pool.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bahahahahahahahaha! I hear that! I think you should do a pet peeve every day!

Stardust said...

tommy, we have private residents and businesses that have their sprinkler systems going WHILE IT'S RAINING! That is even more absurd!

We have the odd/even days here too, but we never water our grass (much to the dismay of our anal neighbors) and let Mother Nature take care of the watering. My husband says if he waters it then he has to cut it more often and he hates wasting his time on mowing the lawn. We don't rake leaves either...they are good for the soil.

Stardust said...

A bigger pet peeve I have at the moment are those obnoxious inflatable monstrosities that people put in their front yards. They have them for every single holiday now. One person has an humongous inflated haunted mansion that takes up every inch of their front grass.

Poodles said...

I turned off my whole watering system about 2 weeks ago. Time to let it go dormant now anyway.

Tommykey said...

Sure enough, it was raining again this morning and the neighbor's sprinkler was tche-tche-tche-ing away!

Harry Nads said...

Many cities around Oklahoma are requiring rain sensors are added to any automatic sprinkler systems to avoid the watering while raining syndrome. I don't think it is against the law to have them running while it is raining, but it may get there eventually.

It is stupid to water while its raining, but if you are willing to pay for that water then you should have the right to do it.

Tommykey said...

Hey Harry!

I certainly don't dispute their right to do it. I simply question their sanity.

tina FCD said...

I think it was the mentality, that it's their day and they choose to do it no matter what.

In my neighborhood, no one waters their yard and it's not because they prefer to go natural, no one takes care of their yard but me. Seriously, I think I'm the only one on my street that waters their lawn. We kind of live in a crappy neighborhood anyway but I still have a clean yard and house.