More Power!

After years of griping about the annoying whine leaf blowers make, I was finally allowed to use one today. And I believe that whoever invented the leaf blower should be sainted, knighted and given a ticker tape parade. I am a total convert.
Leaf blowers rock.
Why isn't there a Dust Your House version? A Herd Your Cattle model? Heck, put enough power on one of these babies and you could scoot your kids right out to the bus in the morning without all the fuss and whining. (Just be sure the bus door is open first. Don't want Child and Family Services on your case.)
However, I would advise that you spend a little time working on technique first. Our plan today was to shoot our leaves up the driveway and corral them off to the right against the neighbor's house. Then it would be a straight shot to blow them down the house, along the hedge and right out the gate to the field. I would work the blower and Ken would clean up the stragglers with the rake. Here's some tips for those of you who might be new to leaf blowing:
1. Leaf blowers are loud so if you're working with someone, decide on hand signals ahead of time. We did not do this, and I thought I was doing a great job because Ken kept giving me the thumbs up sign.
Insistently.
In fact, he seemed desperate that I SEE him give me the thumbs up sign.
So I smiled and nodded and gave him the thumbs up sign right back. This was fun! Yeah! Only he was telling me to point the nozzle straight up and stop blowing leaves for a minute because I'd inadvertently airlifted a trowel I'd left on the driveway and the leaf blower was making it attack his ankles like a pit bull. I couldn't hear what he was saying but I did discover that I can lip read certain words.
2. Be aware of where the stray leaves go, especially if there's no fence between your yard and the neighbors. Most neighbors are not happy to find their front porch stuffed full of leaves that weren't there an hour ago. And if they happen to make this discovery whilst in the midst of watching the Browns lose yet again, it might even make them mad.
3. When confronted by such a neighbor, it won't help if you question their intelligence and remark that everyone knows the Browns couldn't win this season if they were playing against a peewee football team comprised of five year old midgets.
4. Never point a leaf blower at your neighbor.
5. You cannot run with a leaf blower strapped to your body.
We did finally manage to scoot nearly every leaf through our yard and back to the field. Thanks to the wonder that is a leaf blower, we did it without getting blisters or stepping on the wrong ends of rakes.
So now I'm inside, making brownies to deliver to a neighbor.
It only seems right.