I'm Not Yet Ready for A Leaf Blower; They're Too Noisy

I think that I shall never see a leaf that’s prettier than when it’s still hanging for dear life onto a tree. Hang in there maple leaf! Be tough alder leaf! Don’t give in to gravity cottonwood leaves!

Raking leaves sucks. Sure it’s good exercise and all those yellow and red autumn leaves that have fallen to the ground are pretty, but I probably could live the rest of my life without raking leaves. Sure, raking leaves gets me and Sam out in the fresh air and probably has some other health benefits – Sam enjoys chasing leaves as they skitter across the driveway and likes to roll in them - but I wish my elementary school teachers had never told me to bring leaves to school so I could draw them and trace their patterns on paper and learn to appreciate their beauty. Beauty, smeuty! They make a big mess in my yard and clog up the street drains so our roads flood when it rains hard. And you can’t just leave them on your lawn. They’re good mulch for flower beds but they tend to smother grass.

Every autumn when I’m raking leaves I can’t help thinking about the four years I lived in a condo and the homeowners’ association hired people to take care of leaves. Those people were smart and used leaf blowers. Forget raking! Every autumn I seriously consider buying a leaf blower. It looks like they work pretty well although I’d still have to bag the leaves and do something with them. The trouble with leaf blowers though is they’re so danged noisy. Why can’t our manufacturers make a quiet leaf blower?

A while back I addressed the issue of noise in this blog and reported the fact that some people in a particular high-rent district of California were up in arms about leaf blowers. Apparently, too many neighbors were hiring lawn care professionals to take care of their lawns and those pros were fond of making their jobs as easy as possible by using leaf blowers not only to blow leaves around, but also to blow grass clippings off sidewalks and who knows what else. One wonders sometimes if those lawn care people just liked making noise and riling up the citizens (you know, the 4% who could afford lawn care). At any rate, people were going to court, were trying to convince their various city or county council people to pass anti-noise ordinances and engaging in other similar anti-antics. Sam and I wonder if the complainants considered asking for a fence to be built to keep the noise contained. That’s what we do here in Washington to “protect” the sensitive hearing of people living alongside our freeways.

It’s too bad leaf blowers make so much noise. If only they didn’t cost so much. If they were cheaper I might be able to reconsider my prejudice against them. When I consider the cost of a lawn rake versus the leaf blower the rake will win every time - until I’m too old to wield a rake. My muscles are tired today from raking and I have a couple of blisters on my hands, but I’m still not too old to rake and at least it was quiet outside while I was raking – until my danged neighbor started his lawn mower.