I just finished watching some Doctor Who, and now I’m typing with an English accent. Please read accordingly.
Fall is my favorite season. It is likely not coincidental that my favorite colors are those of Autumn.
993327 is a particular favorite. I may have to find a home for it in the blog’s color palette.
Now, to the matter at hand.
Do you see this picture? This one right here?
This was taken a mile or so from me. It’s pretty, right? My favorite colors. That’s a nice reflecty thing going on, there. Some nice driftwood, I guess.
All of you reading from a locale that is not graced by God with 4 seasons are insanely jealous. Well, let me help you out there. Autumn is a total lie. It is over in about 42 seconds. You know what you get then?
You get ugly poop-brown leaves all over your yard. Leaves are shaped like sails. Sails catch the wind and move gracefully curved vessels lithely over the surface of the water. Not leaves, though. Leaves feel the (artificial) wind, say “Screw you” and stay stuck to the remains of the Hostas the deer slaughtered with the single-mindedness of a fat kid on Halloween.
I spent near 3 hours blowing leaves today. Let’s cover some ground:
1) Tool Review, as promised.
I picked this up a bit ago and said I’d review it. The Craftsman Professional 79400 backback blower kinda blows (see what I did there?). It did fine when blowing the driveway, and it even did well on moving around larger quantities of leaves in the yard, but it just didn’t have the power to get those clingers, or behind the bushes, and it dragged out the whole ordeal longer than it needed to be. But, it was rather inexpensive, and considering the cost of the tool that I know will get the job done, I’ll suck it up and use this one a few days a year and be happy for it. If you have a half-acre and 4 old trees, I’d say it’s good for you. If, like me, you have twice that… well, you might look elsewhere.
2) Leaves on Roof
Some advice. Don’t let leaves sit in the corners of your roof too long. They hold moisture and will shorten the life of the shingles. Plus, the longer they sit, the harder they are to get off.
While I was out there, I remembered a project that I bought supplies for and never got around to doing. I’ll tackle it shortly, and grace you all with the results.
3) Mind the Poop
Occasionally, when they’re not busy sleeping, eating, drinking, or nudging me because they want something, my dogs will take 5 minutes to sniff around the yard for that spot that is to be graced with their poop.* And, since I’m too busy sleeping, eating, drinking, or nudging my wife because I want something, I don’t typically get around to picking it up. This was a problem when we lived in a townhouse and had a postage stamp of a yard, but not so much anymore. We have an acre for them to poop on, and they are dead set on finding a spot they haven’t yet pooped, and using it.
So, when the un-picked-up poop is covered with poop-brown leaves, and the blower being used to move said leaves has a tendency to leave poop-colored clingers behind, grasping to the grass in defiance, it results in a sort-of leaf-blowing poop-watching dance. Just like every other stupid dance, I don’t know how to do it.
So, yeah, I stepped in some poop.
* Sometimes, I like to imagine that Koa (one of our Danes) has a whole internal monologue going. And that the voice of that monolog is Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. “This looks like the perfect place…. for me to poop on!”
PS… I said ‘poop’ 11 times in this post. That’s a new personal best.
