Soapbox

The Falling Leaves

     My street, despite being named "Cedar Willow" has a dearth of both of those types of trees, but the sidewalks are lined with locust trees, which possess millions of tiny leaves. Usually they turn colors at different speeds but this year, like girls who call ahead to plan what they will wear to school the next day, they seem to have all decided to change at the same time. I came home from work and the late afternoon sun lit up the entire street, as every tree had changed to a warm, bright yellow and seemed to glow.    
     A few days later, after some pleasant drifts of gold here and there, they apparently said "…aaaaand- all drop!" and they all came tumbling down.

   So now the fun begins.
   Those tiny leaves just will not come up when you mow over them, unlike the nice, curled maple leaves. And even a rake with small tines lets half the leaves pass through with each stroke, so you go over and over the same spot. Fortunately, I am not OCD about my yard. I make a good effort and then figure a few leaves left behind just feed the soil, right?
    I used to have a leaf blower/sucker from Black and Decker that I used to suck up the leaves after I raked them into piles, because not only are they tough to rake together but they're tough to pick up. It chewed the leaves up a bit too, which was nice, and helped them compost faster. I think a little stick got stuck in it last year, but at any rate, the motor burned out. Bye bye modern technology.

    Down the street I have a neighbor who has one that certainly blows leaves. Last week as I headed out to walk the dogs, he was in his front yard, determinedly blowing those itty bitty leaves toward the street. It wasn't easy because they don't offer much wind resistance. The dogs and I went a few blocks and when we came back he was still at it. Then I went to the grocery store and when I returned, 2 hours after I walked the dogs, he was still blowing leaves.
     Either the blower was not up to the job, or he was getting every single leaf out from between the blades of his grass, damnit. I thought about how much electricity it must take, not to mention the time and effort. How much easier is 2+ hours of waving that blower around than 20 minutes of raking? Not much, I think.

    The next morning as I was getting in my car to go to work, he was at it again! Well, there are still a few stragglers on the trees, you know. Plus the wind was blowing from my yard toward his, so I was probably contributing. So today I tackled my leaves. I have 2 locust trees to his one, both of which are bigger than his. In an hour my yard was- certainly not immaculate, but tidied. And I got an upper body work-out and saved electricity.
    I don't get leaf blowers. But I really wish I had that machine to suck them up.