#street sweeper

[rhubarbgamer]

[neververy4]

In order to properly clean a parking lot, one needs to clean the dust off a sidewalk. Parking lots are usually cleaned by large vaccuming trucks, and they can't exactly fit on the building's sidewalk, so the dirt needs to be swept off them and onto the lot itself so that the hungry beast can feed.

However, you wouldn't use a broom, that would take you hours. Believe it or not, a leaf blower is the perfect tool; you walk down the sidewalk at a leisurely pace, blower at about 1/2 throttle, and all the cigarette butts, dirt, and other trash are blasted off the sidewalk very efficiently.

Now, some sidewalks in front of buildings have obstacles on them, such as vending machines. Dirt and debris like to gather behind them, so cleaning behind and under is a must. However, while you can't just casually move them out of the way every time you clean, you CAN just stick that leaf blower nozzle behind it and pull that trigger at full blast, blasting all that dirt out.

Sometimes, when you do that, you may also get a mouse to somersault out as well. Mice like to hide behind big things for protection, and as they are light creatures, as susceptible to strong winds.

In the past three years of cleaning parking lots, they're always somersaulting. Not tumbling, not running, not rolling sideways. somersaulting. Snout to butt, rolling down the sidewalk. I feel bad. I feel guilty. I didn't know they were back there, and I can't exactly call out "hey any mice here?".

But. I know it doesn't hurt them, and I can't help but laugh when it happens. Why are they always somersaulting? If I followed them, could I make them somersault all the way to the end? That would be messed up :\ but like. Could I?

[idiomagic]

King of the Lemurs

The streets of the French Quarter in New Orleans are narrow. With parking on both sides of the street, and constant foot traffic, regular size street sweepers won't fit. Before Katrina, the Quarter was cleaned by adorable purple street sweeping/street washing machines about the size of the kind of van you see by the river with a 'free candy' sign propped against it. The driver sat raised up in front, and the whole thing was blocky and kind of square. And purple. Fabulously purple. They were one of my favorite things. The bar I worked in was a tiny little place on Pirate's Alley, right against the cathedral. Every night, I would hear the street sweeper coming, and race out to admire it. I would always wave to the driver, and would watch it trundle around Jackson Square before going back to work.

I was having a great night at work. It was my birthday, and my boss had presented me with a crown and a new pair of stripey black and white knee socks. I was wearing both when I ran out to watch the street sweeper. As usual, the driver waved to me. He yelled "I love your socks! You look like a lemur!" I pointed to my crown and shouted back, "I'm the King of the Lemurs! It's my birthday!" He stopped the machine, and we chatted for a while. He said, "I see you out here every night, watching me sweep..." "I love your sweeper so much!" I gushed. "He's my favorite thing ever!" "Well," he said, "it's your birthday. You want to go for a little ride?" My boss was standing behind me, and told me to go for it. So with a lot of help, I clambered up onto the flat top of the street sweeper, my legs dangling over the side. It started up, and began its stately trundle around the Square and then over to Bourbon, with me perched on top with my stripey socks and my crown, waving to the crowds like a pageant queen. I got to ride for over half an hour, having the time of my life, confusing the tourists. I later found out from a coworker that my boss had bribed the sweeper guy to take me on a birthday ride. Best birthday ever. Best boss ever.

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[jenfoundabug]

Silverfish in genus Ctenolepisma Northern California, US

[eopederson]

Escultura: barrendero, Sol, Madrid, 2016.

[starqueen87]

Charles Brooks, a resident of Newark, N.J, is credited with inventing the street sweeping trucks in 1896 with revolving brushes.

Street sweeping was a manual job until he invented the self-propelled street sweeper.

—Street sweeping was often a manual labor job in Brooks' time. Keeping in mind that horses and oxen were the main means of transportation — where there is livestock, there is manure. Rather than stray litter as you might see today in the street, there were piles of manure that needed to be frequently removed regularly. In addition, garbage and the contents of chamber pots would end up in the gutter.

The task of street sweeping was not carried out by mechanical equipment, but rather workers who roamed the street sweeping garbage up with a broom into a receptacle. This method clearly required a lot of labor, although it did provide employment.

[adtothebone]

To cut down on production costs, much of the upcoming The Fast and the Furious 11: Tokyo Drift 2: Electric Boogaloo was filmed in Bismarck, North Dakota.

[bionic-baby]

A little digitalization of a panel from this: https://www.tumblr.com/bionicle-baby/773894044826877952/based-off-of-a-reply-by-ghost-mantis

We Be Bionicling, Baby!

Based off of a reply by @ghost-mantis . . . . . . Your welcome. What should I name the Street sweeper Bohrok? Also, the girls are n

Introducing, Renok, the result of putting a Krana in a street sweeper. He is pretty mad about being a literal street sweeper and he wants to be a real Bohrok.