neighbor using snowblower at 10:30pm

[Rock'n Robin]

so we have had maybe 3 inches of snow tonight. We just finished watching our DVR of Biggest Loser and I was headed off to bed, but our neighbor on that side of the house has decided to come out and use his snowblower (which sometimes throws snow into our house, and my bed is of course on that side).
They are pretty good neighbors, but ARRGHH. If we can't mow this late, or before 8AM, why can they run the snowblower in those hours?
Robin M.

 

[wardfamily1]

You must live in my neighborhood. My neighbor was just out there for 20 minutes , he JUST finished a minute ago. Some people are very inconsiderate. It isn't like there's a foot of snow and he won't be able to get out of the driveway in the morning or anything.

RUDE RUDE RUDE!

 

[TwinsinCA]

Maybe he has to leave really early in the morning? Would you rather wake up to it at 6 am?

Mowing the lawn is more flexible. You have to blow out your driveway before you drive on it or you will have packed the snow down and have a mess.

 

[bgirl29]

My neighbor is out regularly at 7am to snow blow before he drives on top of the fresh snow. Sorry I don't care if it makes your driveway look more messy I still think it is rude to wake your neighbors up over that. So I know what you mean.

 

[Mahnahmahnah]

We have a neighbor who does the same thing!

He also will go out there and *scrape*, *scrape*, scrape* the driveway with a shovel late at night if there's not a lot of snow. It is really loud. And DD's (baby) room is on that side. I have a sound machine for her room so hopefully she doesn't hear scraping and wake up.

Right now we have dusting of snow. I'm waiting to hear the scrapes.

 

[Mkgaapril]

my husband works in the winter time 15-18 hours a day. He was due home tonight at 9 and is just getting in because of an emergency landing. Our driveway is up a big hill. When I leave to take DD to school in the morning I can slide down it and be in my yard and street...and trust me it's no fun taking out everyone's mail box, or he can clear it when he gets home. My guess is he is clearing it now...but then again here it is an 11 oclock noise thing...but our neighbors are pretty decent about it...a few times someone has done our driveway for us, and in the same respect DH has taken care of theirs. I can say our homes are spaced far enough apart that the noise isn't to bad and nothing hits the houses.....

 

[OrlandoMike]

I remember when I lived up north. You work all day, do things around the house, eat dinner, and then it snows. You know you have to get up early again for work, so what is the option? Do it late at night, or early in the morning. It's not like it is grass and can wait.

 

[Disneyadore]

Does he do this all the year?

No?

Get over it ore would you rather visit your neighbors with some Christmas flowers because one of them broke a leg?

 

[CajunDixie]

You'd really hate living next to me after a 4-5" snow. Because then we'd have enough to snowmobile!!!!! I'm so not a morning person so I'd rather clean my car and driveway now before I go to bed than have to do it in the morning when I'm dressed for work.

We have one neighbor that has mowed as early as 5 am! So if I have to put up with that then they can put up with us cleaning our driveway at 11 at night. I really feel sorry for the people that work swing shifts....it's to hard to keep track of when they are working and sleeping.

 

[Mkgaapril]

yep, I have seen days that DH has gone to bed at 8 am only to have everyone fire up their mowers..he had to deal with it

 

[LilyWDW]

And depending on the temps, by the time he wakes up in the morning and needs to get out, the driveway could be solid ice. I'd give him a little slack.

 

[clh2]

People snowblowing at any hour of the day just doesn't bother me. And usually, they start around here about 4:30 in the morning. We live in an area where it snows. Plain and simple.

And...one time I was guilty of that too:

I personally have blown the snow about 11:00 at night, simply because my DH was out of town (I expected him back about 1:00 am, and I couldn't get out any earlier, since my DD (about 1 year old at the time) just wouldn't get to sleep. Some time that particular night, we were supposed to get a nasty cold front- with -50 degree wind chills. Anything on our driveway would have "froze" and not been able to have been blown off if I wouldn't have done it at that time. I just didn't want DH to have to come home to deal with that.

 

[TwinsinCA]

Sorry I don't care if it makes your driveway look more messy I still think it is rude to wake your neighbors up over that. So I know what you mean.

It is not a matter of the driveway "looking" messy it is a matter of that packed snow turning to ICE. And if you live in MN or WI or other northern states where you do not get above freezing for weeks on end, you now have a "mess". Then you have to resort to salting your driveway or trying to chisel off that frozen strip with the end of a shovel. Better to prevent it in the first place.

 

[Mickeyistheman]

I would cut the neighbor some slack. How often does it snow and it could turn into ice in the morning. By the way, he might even be nice and maybe do your sidewalk as well? So I wouldn't exactly complain about it right now.

My stepfather usually does our block, if he is out there first, sometimes its one of our other neighbors. So we don't mind because we are all pretty friendly on this block.

 

[C.Ann]

Maybe he has to leave really early in the morning? Would you rather wake up to it at 6 am?

Mowing the lawn is more flexible. You have to blow out your driveway before you drive on it or you will have packed the snow down and have a mess.

A "mess" that will turn to solid ice at this time of year and not thaw out until spring.. If at all possible, snow should be taken care of ASAP - and if 10:30 is the earliest he could do it, it's just one of those winter issues that people have to try to be tolerant of..

I remember when I lived up north. You work all day, do things around the house, eat dinner, and then it snows. You know you have to get up early again for work, so what is the option? Do it late at night, or early in the morning. It's not like it is grass and can wait.

Exactly..

And depending on the temps, by the time he wakes up in the morning and needs to get out, the driveway could be solid ice. I'd give him a little slack.

Lots of neighbors here - working all kinds of odd hours - some working more than one job.. They have to do it when time allows and that's all there is to it.. It's not a matter of being inconsiderate - it's a safety issue..

Personally it wouldn't bother me in the least because I know it's a "have to" - not a "want to"..

 

[Kycha]

Op, I can totally sympathize. Fortunately, there aren't many snowblowers in our subdivision. But, the neighbor on the bedroom side of our house has to have every toy out there known to man....especially if it requires gas and makes a lot of noise(snow blower, leaf blower, Harley, etc). The first year he got the snow blower(3-4 years ago) the first snow storm came through. It snowed, maybe 2 inches. It was a very light snow that was expected to melt the next day. Mr neighborman was out at 11pm with that dang snow blower. Of course he couldn't keep the thing running. So every couple minutes you would hear it cut out then he would start it up again. It took over 1 1/2 hours till he was finally done. He could have literally swept the snow up with a broom in about 15 minutes.

 

[Imzadi]

Perhaps he had seen your light on in the living room & knew you were still up. He didn't think you were going to bed just then.

 

[Michelle67]

How about an "it could be worse" post? We don't get a heck of a lot of snow here, but we get our butts kicked by severe wind storms in the winter. Knocks a bunch of trees down and takes out the power for extended periods of time. Two years ago some people on the peninsula I live on were out for three weeks. The noise aspect of this is that instead of hearing a snow blower for half an hour, you hear gens running 24/7 until the power comes back on.

Sorry it irritated ya. I'm sure you know it's just life, but that doesn't make it less irritating when you'd rather it was quiet.

 

[rkrivas]

I know it sucks, but I'd probably be one of the people that would be out at odd hours worried that it would freeze over. Last year at this time, I didn't clear my driveway off in time (I'm a single mom) and my driveway froze over with about 2-inches of ice a week before Christmas. It took me that full week to chip away the ice from my driveway several hours a day. I found a new way to develop carpal tunnel syndrome! I'll never make that mistake again.

 

[THE HAT]

I can promise you that after getting home after a long day of work the last place my dh wants to be is out in the driveway snowblowing, but unlike the lawn which can be put off until a better time, snow removal must be done that same day. Some neighbors are out at 4am, and some like us, are on the other side at 10-11pm.
It is part of the life of living in a state where snow flies, and temps hover below the donut.
I don't think your neighbor is inconsiderate.....