Eco economy

The board of the condo complex where I live has changed landscape services. I suspect the decision was based solely on cost, because the other guys did a great job. Not only were they efficient at tidying up the common areas and pruning shrubbery around the parking lot, but they also planted and tended annuals.

There was a team of about four to six (depending on activities planned, I guess) out here every Tuesday morning. An hour of leaf blowing, then the trimming and the like, and then on to their next regular gig. On days when they were swapping out the annuals, they’d be here a little longer, but they weren’t running their leaf blowers constantly.

The new service, which comes midday on Mondays, consists of one middle-aged Caucasian guy with a canvas hat, a notepad and a supervisorial attitude, and one Latino with the leaf blower. Because it’s only him doing the actual, you know, work, that roar goes for about three hours, with the attendant gas fumes. I don’t know how it works out, but most of the leaves must be at my end of the area, because it’s right outside my bedroom window for all that time. It's like living in an oil refinery.

I notice that they’ve stopped the practice of putting in the annuals; instead the areas under the trees are just dry patches of hard dirt. Very fetching. Not.

But I’m sure the board got the lowest bid possible, so they must be happy.