Oil. It is here, it is there, it is all around us. Our bodies produce oils that stain pillows and hats much like Ralph’s Brylcream. There is however some oil that gives issues to the powers that be. The Powers that be being the city. Out in front of my house, on the street are 2 very good size oil stains.
They have been there for 4 years. They were caused by a cracked block on my old truck. Despite all of the times that our street has been swept by the city, the oil stains remain. There is also a fairly substantial stain on my driveway from the time my power steering pump blew a hose. And the time that I was changing the oil and the wind started blowing the oil harder than gravity or surface tension could keep it in a column.
The point of all this is that for better or worse we live in a world that is run largely by oil. We cook with it, we run our cars with it, we put it on the hinges of a squeaky door or a wooden countertop (new ones use a lot of oil for a while, another coat goes on this afternoon here). Oil also is a highly staining substance that soap cannot always foil, and can defy steel brushes, rain, snow, salt and time.
I can sit here and look across the way at my neighbors driveway where he recently parted out one of his trucks and the oil stain he has is larger than the truck itself. and will he ever be getting rid of it? Probably not, it is in the gravel part so until it is paved there is a stain. You can look almost anywhere and see oil stains. Parking lots, driveways, roads, the shirt I’m wearing today.
Oil is here to stay at least for my lifetime. That means that stains are here as well. Might as well get used to them and while we don’t have to quit complaining about them, I can’t wait for the street sweeper to come around again and see him back up and try to do something about the oil stain.
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Justin,
I’m impressed with the diligence of your street sweepers. I don’t think I even have street sweepers in my neighborhood but if I did I don’t think that they would think twice if they saw an oil stain. They would write me a ticket and call me up in front of the HOA. I would probably pay an exorbitant fine and spend the day in the community stocks.
Street Sweepers. I remember them. Been a long time since I’ve seen one 🙁
I thought you guys in Cali would have street sweepers every day. And you are right Ralph, if I lived in an HOA I would be busted. Why don’t you get together and lynch the board of the HOA and start over? An uprising would probably be fined but effective
In California, the oppression of the HOA’s is unassailable. They are tougher than Ghadafi.
HOA boards are populated by people who never had the authority to make a decision more momentous than deciding which cereal to eat for breakfast…and now they have POWER!
Bleeping assholes…
As a street sweeping company, cleaning up oil stains is something we get asked to do on a regular basis. Unfortunately cleaning up oil isn’t something that sweepers were ever designed to do. Its a common misconception that sweepers use water and brooms to “scrub” the street where in reality they’re just big vacuum cleaners or broom and dust pan. What you could do my hand with a broom in a small area is what we can do over a much larger area.
As soon as we figure out how to clean up oil stains with our trucks we’d love to come help you out!
I am going to hold you to that Street Sweeper!