OK am I paranoid or is the following an example of "christo fascism"?

[illini]

I was mowing my lawn today 5/8/05. My wife has just been in the hospital for surgery this week and this was the first opportunity for me to get some yard work done. As I was mowing my lawn I noticed my next door neighbor's mother? looking at me from the other side of the fence. I was curious so I stopped the mower and asked how she was and if she was enjoying the nice weather.
"Well we are just enjoying some lunch and you know today is the sabbath and it should be kept holy."
I may be dumb but I'm not stupid this was all about her mother's day lunch and my mowing and had nothing to do with the sabbath. I had a few ideas about what to tell her pop into my head. "I'm Jewish and Saturday is the sabbath" or how about "I'm a secular humanist and I believe Sunday is the best day for working." I could have also pointed out that the Bible has restrictions on traveling on the sabbath. Or, I could have also asked did had made any purchases today and participate in someone working on the sabbath. The list of my possible retorts is endless. Al Franken popped into my head saying "WWFD" What would Franny do? Or in my case "WWDD". So I just said "thanks" and started the mower back up and kept on mowing.
I would have been willing to stop mowing if I had been asked in the proper way. That just didn't seem to be an option I guess. So, am I nuts and in the wrong or was that "lady?" just being rude.

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Why didn't you tell her what you just told us?

Make her feel bad, tell her your wife just had surgery and this is the first chance you have had to mow.

Or you could have asked her if you could join them for lunch. Tell her you enjoy dining with holy rollers who think their mission in life is to preach to their neighbors.

[wryter2000]

4. LOL

Maybe you should have asked if they had enough loaves and fishes to feed another mouth.

[wryter2000]

2. You did the right thing.

If you honestly believe it was about the noise and not the sabbath, then it probably was just regular rudeness and not Christo-fascism. But whatever...you did the right thing.

[mourningdove92]

3. No, you are not nuts and yes she was rude.

Your restraint was admirable.

[Nite Owl]

5. Is corporate America

exempt? My youngest son just left for work and the oldest won't be home til 6 or 7. I would have liked to have had them home togehter today but corporate America says they are open for business.

[illini]

6. The group of them took off to shop al Walmart. Isnt that funny?

nt

[Nite Owl]

8. So selling the

lawn mower is ok on 'the Sabbath' but actually using it would be a no-no? How can these people be reasoned with!

Hope your wife is doing ok.

[illini]

9. She is doing well. Thanks for asking.

NT

[miss_kitty]

11. Must be on a crusade

some kind of holy mission. Or maybe it's a self serve 'you're all on the honour system til Monday' kind of Walmart...
christ. Rude AND hypocritical. I wonder who the fuck fixed lunch at theirs.

[madmom]

7. I vote for just plain rude....

we live in the suburbs of a small town and burning your trash is a norm around here, about two weeks ago our neighbor was burning trash and "accidentally" according to him set some old railroad ties on fire. Now for those who don't know these are full of creosote and burn really fowl. So the wind it blowing the smoke right into our house and we're choking on the smoke, my husband goes next door and ask him to but them out cuz of the smoke and he said he was burning trash and they lit off accidentally(they were all sitting around his burn barrel) and he couldn't put them out. My husband told him he had 15 minutes to put them out or he was calling the fire department, well he did(put them out) and now they aren't speaking to us.Were we out of line?

[illini]

10. Not at all.

That creosote is bad stuff. You had every right to ask them to be extinguished.

[miss_kitty]

13. hey. I always ask the offenders how THEY'D like it

If I were to do something similar that impacted them negatively. I'dve called the FD w/o telling them. They need to be told how creosote is a carcinogen and RR ties are no longer being used as cheap construction material in the US by local govt's. I doubt moranic types like your neighbours would ever believe shit like that coming from you. If they are speaking to you anymore, consider yourself lucky. That and the fact they put it out makes me believe they know what they did was out of line and they embarrassed themselves.

From Wikipedia:
Health effects

Eating food or drinking water contaminated with high levels of creosotes may cause a burning in the mouth and throat, and stomach pains. Taking large amounts of herbal remedies containing creosote bush leaves may cause damage to the liver or kidney.

Brief direct contact with large amounts of coal tar creosote may result in a rash or severe irritation of the skin, chemical burns of the surfaces of the eyes, convulsions and mental confusion, kidney or liver problems, unconsciousness, and even death. Longer direct skin contact with low levels of creosote mixtures or their vapors can result in increased light sensitivity, damage to the cornea, and skin damage. Longer exposure to creosote vapors can cause irritation of the respiratory tract.

Long-term exposure to low levels of creosote, especially direct contact with the skin during wood treatment or manufacture of coal tar creosote-treated products has resulted in skin cancer and cancer of the scrotum. Cancer of the scrotum in chimney sweeps has been associated with long-term skin exposure to soot and coal tar creosotes. Animal studies have also shown skin cancer from skin exposure to coal tar products.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has determined that coal tar is carcinogenic to humans and that creosote is probably carcinogenic to humans. The EPA has determined that coal tar creosote is a probable human carcinogen.

There is no unique exposure pathway of children to creosote. Children exposed to creosote will probably experience the same health effects seen in adults exposed to creosote. Children who played on soil contaminated with creosote had more skin rashes than children who played in uncontaminated areas. We do not know whether children differ from adults in their susceptibility to health effects from creosote.

Studies in animals have shown birth defects in the young of mothers exposed to high levels of creosote during pregnancy, but we do not know whether the same effects would occur in humans. Some animal studies indicate that creosotes may cross the placenta and reach the fetus. Because chemical components (PAHs, cresol, phenols) of coal tar creosote may be stored in body fat, they may be found in breast milk and could pass to nursing infants.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creosote

[madmom]

26. wow thanks for the info....

I'm gonna print it out and keep it handy just in case.:yourock:

[XemaSab]

19. Yeah!

tell the dude that if he likes his nuts where they are, he shouldn't be burning railroad ties and let him er... "interpret" that as he will.

[amazona]

23. no you were actually too nice

I don't confront neighbors burning stuff any more. I call fire department immediately and if they get cited, too bad so sad.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[RevCheesehead]

12. Same thing happened to my brother, years ago.

After church, he was out cutting his grass, and one of his neighbors came over and told him, "Son, around here, we respect the Sabbath."

BTW - my brother is a pastor, too.
He wanted to say, "yeah, but I've already been at work today," but kept his mouth shut (this was in central PA).

[miss_kitty]

14. My dad's family was a wealthy influential SW Wyoming family

They were big in the Mormon church. Great Grandpa hated that shit. He drank, swore and gambled (poorly, I might add).

Even so, he was always willing to give the church money to build stake houses. His two conditions were that the church not say where the money came from, and no one from the church should ever bother him about not attending services or chide him for any activity he might engage in on Sunday.

One Sunday, he and my Uncle were dehorning some of the herd and an elder of the church came riding up on his horse and said "Brother John, what are you doing out here working on a Sunday?" Without missing a beat or looking up my uncle said that his grandpa's reply was "Jest improving upon the Lord's handiwork, Brother James."

[illini]

15. Nice.

NT

[DS1]

16. I'm on her side. Mow your lawn on Saturday

there should be at least one goddamn day that's free of the constant blare of noise pollution lawn mowers, leaf blowers, dogs, tree shredders, etc.

It's nothing to do with religion, it's all about having one fucking day of peace.

[Maddy McCall]

17. ESPECIALLY on Mother's Day.

I agree with you, DS1. Especially today, people ought to leave the lawnmowers in the garage and allow mothers in their neighborhood to have one day of quiet relaxation.

No offense to you, illini, but today--just today and other holidays--you should have left the lawnmower in the garage.

[DS1]

18. Damn, I hadn't even considered Mother's day, it's just Sunday to me

The one goddamn fucking day where it'd be sooooo nice to not hear anything, to listen to the Songbirds, or the rain walking through the treetops, but no, there always some ASSHOLE that has to fire up his fucking lawnmower and start mowing, RIGHT AROUND DINNER TIME, when I'm trying to enjoy my food outside FOR ONCE! BUT NO!

So, in other words, if you mow your lawn on Sunday, go fuck yourselves. Do it Saturday, or Monday night, just give us, the rest of the considerate civilized world ONE FUCKING DAY of quiet.

But I know none of this will sink in :eyes:

And yes I saw that you're wife got out the hospital, she'd probably like a day off from lawnmowing too

[XemaSab]

20. My mom's got the old school mower going

no motor, no noise.

Hey, it's a helluva upgrade from the way she used to do it: with scissors.

On edit: Let's just say it was pretty shaggy in the back for a while there.

[miss_kitty]

25. She never asked him to stop

You are 100% correct. It IS nothing to do with religion.

If someone wants to be passive aggresive and try to manipulate me into knocking something the fuck off, I may have to re-mow my lawn. ("Damn I wanted this on a diagonal stripe fom the NE to the SW corner, not from NW to SE-Do over!")

Fuck the old bag, man. If she can't come out and say-"hey! Could I ask you a favour? It's Mother's day, we're trying to eat out here and can't hear each other-we're going to WalMart in a few-Could you finish up then?" instead of this cryptic fundie presumptive "keeping the Sabbath" BullShit, I get the feeling the OP might have stopped, waited for them to leave then resumed. He seems like a reasonable person.

[hickman1937]

21. You should have broke down crying, and told her that you lost

track of the days, what with work and hospital, and all. Throw some guilt around. Always works for me. Maybe she'd even finish the lawn for you.

[amazona]

22. she was being rude

Good for you. Your wife has been in hospital and you finally get a chance to do some yard work and the neighbor squawks? Eff her. You know what? If you hadn't mowed the lawn, she probably would have called code enforcement on you for letting the grass get too high. You can't make self-righteous people happy since they are determined to be miserable and make everyone around them miserable. Sunday is the traditional day for lawn mowing and if she can't handle that, let her move someplace there is no grass, like maybe Saudi Arabia.

You were remarkably restrained just to go about your business. I think a lot of people would have cussed her out.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[Lars39]

24. Did they know your wife was in the hospital?

Did they ask how she was doing? How you were doing? Had they offered to mow your lawn for you?

Didn't think so. Yet you're supposed to keep the Sabbath holy for them. :eyes: