Is there a more goddamned useless invention in common use than the leaf blower? In exchange for droning noise and unpleasant exhaust you get leaves that have been blown around… blown around. Here’s one of the two offenders in my office parking lot today doing their part for monoxide emissions. The end result being all those leaves make their way from the sidewalk to the parking lot. Because they won’t be collecting them in any way, they’re just going to have them rot in a different location.
The only person ever to give me a valid reason for using a leaf blower lived in Manassas where the county did curbside vacuuming of leaves, so getting them all down into the street had some purpose. Most time I see these used they’re just making the leaves Someone Else’s Problem. Which might be at least a reasonable if rude goal except for that one thing that no leaf blower user seems to have ever considered:
Wind.
Seriously you clowns, you think some sort of leaf blower magic keeps them from just blowing right back to where they were? Buy a fracking rake and some garbage bags.
This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs
Well I used to say something in my profile about not quite being a “tinker, tailor, soldier, or spy” but Tom stole that for our about us page, so I guess I’ll have to find another way to express that I am a man of many interests.
Hmm, guess I just did.
My tastes run the gamut from sophomoric to Shakespeare and in my “professional” life I’ve sold things, served beer, written software, and carried heavy objects… sometimes at the same place. It’s that range of loves and activities that makes it so easy for me to love DC – we’ve got it all.
