Our gardeners, who normally cut the grass and blow the leaves on Wednesday, were unable to do so last week, so they showed up early Thanksgiving morning to complete their work. This prompted a neighbor, who operates a one man, illegal carpentry shop in his detached garage, to call up and start screaming about “your god-damned gardeners and their leaf blowers working on a holiday!”

Though I find his self-righteousness about noise to be hilarious, considering he covertly works with high pitched saws and drills and has never once heard us complain, I must agree that the leaf blower and lawn mower is an abundantly annoying suburban thing.

There are many noise complaints that I have about my neighborhood: police, ambulance and fire vehicles; LAPD helicopters, the constant low groan of the 405 freeway, boom box car stereos, barking dogs, and jet airplanes— all contribute to a lower quality of life.

But some of the noise belongs to devices and systems that benefit me. If the police get to a crime faster, if the ambulance arrives to save my life seconds earlier, if the jet plane brings me home to New Jersey in five hours, then I am better off. The dog who barks away burglars and the leaf blower that keeps the neighborhood looking cleaner and property values higher…These are trade offs for a better way of life.

I just wish I could convince myself of that when I’m awakened at 4am by a copter buzzing my neighborhood.