Thoughts while raking 30 bagfuls of leaves. I’ve had this same idea every autumn for many years. Why isn’t there a company that will come and blow our leaves away? No, I don’t mean the landscapers who arrive with a squadron of blower-wielders who take an ear-splitting hour to clear one yard. There should be an outfit equipped with enough air power to do the job quietly in a few seconds.
They could have one of those eight-foot diameter fans that motion picture companies use for special effects like when they’re filming a typhoon scene. The “Night Winds Inc.” crew would arrive with their truck-mounted fan around 3 a.m., turn it on full blast and instantly clear a lawn, almost noiselessly, propelling leaves in various directions around the neighborhood.
Nitpickers would claim the operation is illegal and maybe they’d be right. There are other drawbacks as well. If I hired Night Winds Inc., my leafless lawn the next morning would arouse quite a lot of suspicion among my neighbors whose yards have been buried. Then too, if the fan guy doesn’t aim with extreme care, my window shudders, stoop plants and mailbox might be scattered up and down the street as further evidence, and the neighbor whose cat became airborne and ended up meowing loudly on his garage roof would certainly demand an investigation.
No, the idea needs a lot of work, but thinking about it helps to distract me while raking and here I am finally closing bag number 30. What a relief to be done. It must have taken five hours of raking, scooping and pushing down leaves to make room for more in each bag. Let me check my watch on the time span. That’s funny. My watch is gone.
OH NO! MY FAMILY HEIRLOOM ENGRAVED TIMEX IS GONE!
My wife tried to console me later. “Don’t feel bad, Dear. Your favorite wristwatch isn’t really gone. It’s in one of those 30 leaf bags over there.”
Imagine That 