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I live next door to a summer camp. The kind that has kids from the nearby city come for 2 weeks, sleep in bunks, play outside all day, hike, etc. A few months
by ysavir 1y ago
I live next door to a summer camp. The kind that has kids from the nearby city come for 2 weeks, sleep in bunks, play outside all day, hike, etc.
A few months ago we had a carpenter doing some work on the house, and he was asking me about the camp and living so near to it. Eventually he asked "Are they loud when they play? That must be so annoying. I'd hate that."
I replied "Nah, it's healthy and fun, and it doesn't travel as far as you'd think. The real annoying sounds are all the lawnmowers, weed whackers, and gasoline powered tools that people keep using throughout the summer". He immediately went quiet and sour. Guess I hit a nerve.
- johnfn 1y agoMaybe because he was trying to make small talk and you insulted his profession?
- askafriend 1y agoDefinitely this. A total lack of awareness and tact demonstrated by OP.
- justinrubek 1y agoThis is a very ironic comment.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- reverendsteveii 1y agoThe point of the story is that OP is absolutely aware of their lack of tact.
- GuinansEyebrows 1y agoi can't tell how much of a point you're trying to make, but if complaining about children playing is small talk, the less of it the better.
- the_cat_kittles 1y agosocial skills of hn on display
- gilfoy 1y agoThe age old profession of generating small engine noise pollution
- bigyabai 1y ago[flagged]
- pavel_lishin 1y agoWhat?
- AnimalMuppet 1y agoCarpenters don't use many gasoline-powered tools...
- mr_toad 1y agoMaking furniture with chainsaws is a thing. Funnily enough they used to call this hacking, rather than carpentry.
- askafriend 1y agoThis is even funnier.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- klank 1y agoGuess we had the same thought, I posted a similar comment. It genuinely threw me for a loop cause I was trying to figure out how OP actually said anything about carpentry...
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- klank 1y agoOP mentioned "lawnmowers, weed whackers, and gasoline powered tools". That has nothing to do with standard carpentry.
- callc 1y agoThe carpenter may have thought the same sentiment is being applied to loud power tools such as table saw, jointer, router, …
- nothrabannosir 1y agoIn other words: GP hit a nerve.
- klank 1y agoCertainly, which is why the social interaction OP described makes sense. But OP was specific in the loud things they mentioned, and that list very much does not directly imply carpentry. So to then make it about OP's lack of tact by explicitly calling out the OP for focusing on their profession? It strains credulity as a good faith reading of OP's story.
- johnfn 1y agoYou don't think carpentry falls into the category of "professions that make loud noise outdoors"?
- klank 1y agoSure, and if OP had said that, perhaps we'd be having a different conversation. Or none at all? EDIT: Ah, maybe you're responding to my remark of it having "nothing to do"? If so, yeah, that's hyperbole. There are similarities if you want to look for them. But I don't think they're meaningful connections for the point of the story and OP's reaction, in my opinion.
- johnfn 1y agoThe point of the story is that someone tried to strike up a conversation with OP and he responded by effectively saying "your job is loud and obnoxious", and it's presented as if it's a win. It doesn't really seem like one to me.
- ysavir 1y agoI've never seen a carpenter use a lawnmower on the job. Seems unwieldy to drag up a ladder. On a more serious note, most carpentry tools aren't that bad in terms of noise. They can get loud, but they tend to be momentary, getting a cut done, and back to silence. It's the landscaping companies that are running powered tools right up next to people's houses for 30-40 minutes at a time that are the problem. And by the time one company is done, another arrives and revs their own engines. As for me ruining his attempt at small talk and insulting his profession... Eh. If someone's idea of small talk is trying to make children appear disrupters of the peace for having fun at camp for 6 weeks out of the year, as children ought to do, I'm not too concerned about making a comment expressing a common and often relatable sentiment that makes that person feel bad about their own disruptions of the peace. To the extent that I "insulted his profession", that was him setting himself up. Don't serve a dish you wouldn't want to eat. He could have made small talk in a hundred different ways or found a way to show appreciation instead of annoyance, but he said what he said, and he set the tone.
- reverendsteveii 1y ago>Don't serve a dish you wouldn't want to eat. BRB, off to the tattoo shop
- madcaptenor 1y agoAlso the camp was probably there when you moved in! So if you complain about normal camp noise you just didn't do your due diligence.
- sokoloff 1y agoPeople buy cheap[er] houses near airports and then try to get airport ops changed/restricted all the time. (I agree with you, but it’s obviously a thing that people have no problem doing.)
- analog31 1y agoIANAL, but there's established precedent about this, under the heading of "Coming to the nuisance."
- Der_Einzige 1y agoVery based. All the people who try to claim that this is bad social skills apparently just take it from folks in the often scummy trades (i.e. mechanics, dentists, etc when I say scummy) who treat us like shit and make snide comments and backhanded compliments with impunity about us lazy computer users. This is triply true in the post AI era. They hate us cus they aint us. You hit a nerve here too.
- GuinansEyebrows 1y agoi think you might be picking up on a level of disdain from others based on your attitude that might not be related to your profession. we are all extremely lucky to have been born at the right time with the right set of resources to have found work in the information trade. we are not better than mechanics or dentists, and we're often compensated to ridiculous degrees when compared to arguably vital roles like teachers, social workers, therapists, custodial staff, conservation workers, public defenders, farm laborers, and so many other professions.
- scubbo 1y ago> i think you might be picking up on a level of disdain from others based on your attitude that might not be related to your profession. Bravo
- valiant55 1y agoYeah, I hate lawnmowers. I live next to a church/religious school and an apartment building both with a large yard. I don't mind the daily church bells at 6/12/7 but the constant lawn mowing is the worst.
- mensetmanusman 1y agoDonate a tax deductible electric lawn mowing system that quietly cuts 24/7.