Rant:Leaf Blowers

        Today is a rant. It is a rant about leaf blowers. I do not like leaf blowers. I think they are bad. Achhh, enough. I thought by starting with simple sentences, I could control my emotions on the topic and not go into (pardon the pun) full blown rant and shrill mode. Not possible. If hell has a sound track, you won’t hear it because of the leaf blowers.

        Let’s start there, the sound make, or rather the soul-disturbing NOISE they generate. Isn’t it the epitome of irony that environments (gardens and landscaping) that are supposed to be peaceful and relaxing are maintained by devices seemingly created to elicit information form prisoners at Guantanamo Bay?

        Depending on where you live, it isn’t even a once a week distraction, but a siren call that comes at different times on different days. Apartment dwellers are often spared the multiple ear-drum piercings per week, but must suffer a lengthier torture session that is guaranteed to disrupt whatever one is attempting at the moment (late or overnight shift? Good luck at anything more than a couple hours of sleep.)

        It is a fact that the smaller engines that require a fuel-oil mixture are proportionally higher polluting than their larger cousins. Yet, we allow thousands of these smog-spewing creatures to breath in clean air and then spit out their stench. And it’s the not only crap that they produce, but embedded in their name is their function that further pollutes: blower.

        They don’t CLEAN anything. They move dirt and debris off of one property to another. Then, the next day, another will come along and blow it back onto your property. There is the rare occasion when they are actually used to blow leaves into a pile and then the pile is picked up. I challenge anyone to document that use on a large scale outside of fall, though.

        So we have something that causes noise pollution, air pollution, AND particulate pollution, but is somehow legal. You are banned from burning wood in your fireplace, but THESE things are OK? Anyplace below 4,000 feet in California is only going to have a limited period of time when they’ll actually WANT extra heat produced. In many parts of California, figure out how to live 24 hours a day in a pool and you’ll be a billionaire. But these contraptions are allowed every day, in every season, in every community.

        Just imagine how peaceful our offices and our homes would be without these machines. There are those that argue for their use due to labor and cost savings, but isn’t the improvement in our health and sanity worth a couple of bucks?

Granted, the evil of leaf blowers is a trivial issue to most of the world whose concerns are geared more towards obtaining the basic necessities of life: food, clothing, and shelter. This issue must be unfathomable those who can only imagine having the freedom to bitch about anything without the terror of a door smashing in. This really is a perfect example of a first world problem. Another reason to hate these demonic creations.