Trains and Leaf Blowers

For Daniel's birthday, Dee Dee and Paw Paw gave Daniel a Thomas the Train track set with a track extension pack, and Susu and Bubba got him several trains. So now Daniel has two Thomasses (one talks), Gordon, Toby, and Diesel 10. Every morning we do trains. In fact, every afternoon we do trains. When Joe gets home from work, we do trains. The chug-a-chug of the tiny motor and wheels on the plastic track has become a permanent sound in our living room and now in my brain.

You can imagine my confusion when after settled down into a freezer pizza induced food coma nap, I woke 45 minutes later completely baffled as to how the trains had turned themselves on and were chuffing around the tracks downstairs (or so I thought I was hearing). After shaking myself from my delirium and getting up to see if Daniel was still in his room napping, and noticing the sound had stopped, I was even more confused. Then the noise started up again. No, it was not the trains; it was someone blowing leaves at the house around the corner. The noises are not exactly the same, but they both hum and churn, and to someone just barely awake, they are easily confused.

One of our neighbors around the block is an avid leaf blower. There is nothing he likes more than to blow his leaves, and he does this quite frequently. I believe his passion for leaf blowing rivals Daniel's passion for trains. Unfortunately, he has taken to blowing the leaves between 3:30 and 4:00 in the morning. YES. IN THE MORNING. In case you were wondering, leaf blower noise cuts clear through ear plugs.

How did we discover it was this particular neighbor? While mom was in town, the big leaf sucker truck that takes away the leaves on the road had come through the neighborhood the previous day, and this neighbor was the only one with a freshly blown yard the next day. There were no other piles on the street. I honestly don't think the dormant Bermuda grass minds too terribly about a couple leaves in the winter.

I have thought of filing a noise complaint, but Someone I know once said to love your neighbor. I really did wake up at four one morning and debate calling the police (if you know how I am about night noises and insomnia you'd quit scratching your head in disbelief) but he finished about five minutes later. We wondered if perhaps he worked hours that demanded he could only blow leaves between three and four in the morning, but that theory has been proven false. Joe has heard him at 7:00 am as he takes out the trash, and I have now heard him in the afternoon. This really blows my mind, no pun intended. I'd hate to introduce myself as the neighbor around the corner, and "Oh by the way, could you not blow leaves while the rest of the neighborhood is trying to sleep?"