Landscape bathroom breaks
At first glance, this may seem like an off-putting blog post topic. You’re right. But read on because it gets better. Landscapers spend long seasons in the field dealing with rain, extreme heat, machine noise, and sometimes unkind clients and harsh bosses. Lack of proper bathrooms on work sites is the final indignity.
If you’re lucky, your strata complex has a fob key and you have access to proper bathrooms. This is especially important for female workers. Driving off-site to use proper bathrooms is an unfortunate loss of time. Guys have it easier. Sometimes you can find a pee break site with benefits. In one case, it was ready access to ripe native salmonberries (Rubus spectabilis).
One of the best pee break spots with ripe salmon berries
David Garabedian
Now consider the bizarre March 29, 1983 case of Dave Garabedian, a 23-year-old lawn care worker. Dave was a recent college graduate and worked for the Old Fox Lawn Company in Chelmsford, MA, USA. One day he URINATED on his client’s lawn. The client, 34-year-old Eileen Muldoon confronted Dave about his indiscretion. An argument ensued and it turned into assault as Dave used his hand to choke and strangle the woman. He then removed a drawstring from his uniform and strangled the woman a second time. Skull-crushing rocks followed at the end, taken from a retaining wall.
The prosecution said “it began with an argument, it escalated into an assault and it ended with an execution.” And what about the defense? The defense built a case around the chemical dursban. It argued that Dave’s repeated exposure to dursban in the two weeks prior to the incident made him unable to distinguish between right or wrong. The six man jury deliberated and disagreed. First-degree murder convictions in Massachusetts carry automatic life sentences.
All the woman wanted was to give her husband a gift of a beautiful lawn. Sad. And bizarre.
Sources: UPI.com archives; “American Green: the obsessive quest for the perfect lawn” by Ted Steinberg
