And while I'm Whining...

This, from over at Angry Bear, got me thinking about how thing are being run at my useless university these days.

It used to be, you know, when the leaves fell, when snow fell, when the grass grew, guys with rakes and shovels and blades would deal.

Now? Well! Last Wednesday, during my 1213 class, as I was attempting to explain how to put together an evaluation essay, directly outside my window, a 24-year-old groundskeeper* with leaf-blower was blowing leaves, non-stop, for 35 minutes.

The fuck?

And also? How is that more effecient than raking up the leaves and putting them in bags? It's not like there were even than many leaves on the ground out there. 35 minutes, I kid you fucking not. Wrecked my class** and the classes of everyone else in the building, so he would not have to use a rake.

Same thing with leaf-blowers blowing up cut-grass in the summer, and trash in the summer. Because brooms and rakes are too labor-intensive? Because paying 22 year olds would cost more than the leaf-blowers and those giant machines they use? I'm thinking not, especially with the cost of maintenance and pollution worked in.

/rant off.


*Not his fault, mind you. This work used to be done pre-dawn or on the weekend, but "cost-cutting" measures mean that now it has to be done during the work-week -- or when classes are being held, in other words.

**And yes, we can ask them to stop -- but they just come back 20 or 30 minutes later, in the middle of another class.