Leaf me Alone

There was a time that I sort of enjoyed doing the yard work (no there really wasn�t, but for the sake of this post, let�s assume that there was). Cutting the grass isn�t all that bad (yes it is), but, let�s face it, leaf blowing just plain sucks (or, if you will, blows).

I hated raking leaves when I was a kid (we were too good for technology, manual labor builds character, my dad said, well, I certainly got even with him, as I wound up being a complete character). As an adult, I hated it more. Shortly after moving in to my house, I befriended my next door neighbor, who wound up being a real-life Tim �the Toolman� Taylor (except without the explosions ands the trips to the hospital).

Anyway, on my second autumn in my new house, Rich (my neighbor), gifted me with his old (electric) leaf blower. You see, he had just upgraded to a gas-powered one, and as many of my leaves wound up in his yard (I hated raking so much, I�d put it off hoping that the wind would do my work for me). I guess he figured that if I had a leaf blower, I’d be more likely to blow my leaves. Well, he was right. I used the electric blower for a couple of seasons, then I too upgraded to a gas powered one.

Well, two years ago, that one finally died, as did the replacement one I bought. Well, this year, I really upgraded, and gort me one of those backpack-Ghostbusters units. Man, is that cool. Well, this past weekend, with Dylan operating the electric blower (which still works) and me looking like Robocop, we went to work on the lawn.

So there we were, everyone working on the lawn us working on our lawn, Rich working on his, and some of the other neighbors working on theirs. At one point, Rich, who was using his backpack to blow his leaves, came over and in true friendly, male, testosterone fashion inquired if I wanted to have a blow off to see whose tool was better (which isn�t as gay as it sounds OK, yes it is). We enjoyed our chuckle, and then cleared the leaves on our common property line. Well, we all made short work of the leaves with our hi-tech toys.

After a while, my daughter wanted to get into the act, so I let Dylan operate the backpack and Kayla use the electric one, while I went back to a rake (seems you still need a rake to get the leaves onto the tarp, heck and darn). Anyways, while I�ve never been entirely convinced that the blower makes the job go faster (although you do seem to do less actual work), I�m guessing that it does have its benefits (plus, it�s easier to get the kids to work if they think that is is more akin to play, and you let them use the power tools).

The Perfessor