Boston Condos for Sale and Apartments for Rent
A short story about my rake vs. neighbors’ leaf blower
With Halloween in the rear-view mirror and Thanksgiving speeding up fast, autumn is officially here which means the leaves keep falling, falling….and falling. Now don’t misunderstand me I love the Fall season. Maybe not as much as the comedian Jm Gaffigan though. (Video may take a few seconds to load)
Now I understand most of my readers own or rent a Boston condo, so you don’t have to deal with raking leaves.
Over the weekend, I was asked to rake leaves for my girlfriends’ fathers house in Winchester. Now, with the entire lawn and driveway covered with leaves I realized I had a monumental task in head of me.
One hour into raking leaves, Anthony, the neighbor, came over with a leaf blower and completed my monumental task within an hour, saving me hours of work.
At this point, you might think I’m a big advocate of leaf-blowers, but here is something you might not be aware of about leaf-blowers:
In one hour, a gas-powered leaf blower will emit as much carbon dioxide equivalent as driving a typical internal combustion engine car 3,000 miles. (That’s not a typo). The details are here.
Tends to be noisy and disruptive to both humans and wildlife. According to Audubon, “some gas blowers produce more than 100 decibels of low-frequency, wall-penetrating sound—or as much noise as a plane taking off—at levels that can cause tinnitus and hearing loss with long exposure.
Boston Condos and the Bottom Line:
If you have to clean up the leaves, a good old-fashioned rake wins the day. It’s the quietest, least expensive, and most environmentally friendly leaf-removal option. If you must have a leaf blower in your life, though, at least opt for one of those newfangled electric or battery-operated leaf blowers, which can be quite handy, relatively earth-friendly in that they don’t pollute, and quieter than their gas-powered counterparts.
