By the poolside

Some weeks ago, we received a notification that the free-for-all, early-bird-catches-worm parking lot outside the Department Previously Known as Agronomy was to have lines painted on it for SASRI pool vehicles to park there. The lines were duly painted (providing mild entertainment for me for several days (my office overlooks the parking lot)). Following the painting, several employees parked their cars there and were rebuked by a lunging snotty email. It has apparently become necessary to mark these places with 'POOL VEHICLES ONLY' stencilled onto the tarmac. The funny thing is, the dude was painting these while some cars were parked in the places. So the places that had long cars have the sign at the very end, in fact, threatening to limit the entire parking lot to SASRI pool vehicles, while the empty places more firmly respect their territorial boundaries. While this was mildly funny, the prospect of having to look at wildly haphazard 'POOL VEHICLES ONLY' signs from my office window is not; in fact, it may drive me to drink, or worse. Yuck.

This blows

Ah, I've just remembered my blog! The perfect place to vent, so to speak, about my issues with leaf blowers. Where to start? Does South Africa suffer from raging unemployment? Hmm, maybe! Does South Africa have a balance-of-payments problem? Quite possibly absolutely. Did the petrol price go through the roof last week? Very definitely. Does SA have an almost unlimited supply of grass brooms and large palm fronds for sweeping? Yes, I believe it does. Finally, does blowing leaves from one side of the parking lot to the other achieve anything at all?

Is there ANY reason for the noisy, offensive, gas-guzzlin' petrol leaf blower?