My New Toy.

I was at a "Department Store" today. I was ordering a reel mower, so that I can still hear the boys playing while I mowed the lawn.

I glance over my right shoulder and Oh. My. There it was.

12 amp, 220 mph, 360 cfm worth of Leaf Blower (on sale of course).

Huh? What? I put in some new flower beds last summer. Willard was such a trooper helping out. He hauled many wagon loads of dirt and rocks to help me. He made good money too...enough to buy a half ton of rock at least. Or maybe a haircut or two?



Over the winter, the leaves have made my cute rocky flower beds look terrible. (And so do the tulips that have burst through the layers of newspaper and landscaping fabric. I could have SWORE I took all of the bulbs out, but they are pesky little buggers and they are about to bloom anyhow...can't argue with beautiful Tulies!)

I can't imagine WHAT I was thinking when I put the beds in, though they look nice and help increase the value of our home. When they are in tip-top shape, they look fantastic. But now my yard has MANGE and I hope it is fixable...that is another story, for another time.

Soooooo. I just had to have something to clean the rocks up a bit. Darn impulsive buys. And it has a secret thing it does too...

I take it home, take it out of the box and put the kids in the sand box. I went to the front of the house, put on my safety glasses and proceeded to annoy all my neighbors by my squeals of delight...I mean...the sound of my new leaf blower. Who knew a gal could have sooo much fun blowing leaves all over the place?

But then it gets better. After I blew all the leaves off the rocks, I made a couple of quick adjustments and switched attachments, and OH MY...Then I got to vacuum them up! IT VACUUMS!

While taking a break (actually wiping tears of joy from my eyes), I got a phone call from Randy.

Me: Hi Honey! How are you feeling? (He hasn't been feeling all that good these last few days)
R: Pretty good. Whatcha doin?
Me:Vacuuming the yard.
R: Pause.............You're what-ing the yard?
Me: Vacuuming the yard.
R: Pause.............Why are you vacuuming the yard?
Me: 'Cause it's freaking fun, and I got us a new leaf blower slash (yes, I said the word slash) vacuum today, and it rocks.
R: Ok dear, I'm glad you are happy. (You could hear the odd "I don't understand my wife" tone, and also the "when was the last time she vacuumed the living room tone" as well...It was Monday by the way.)
Me: Ok babe, I am going to go finish, I'll call you when I am done.

I was in the process of vacuuming, and sure enough...something I blew out from the flower bed into the piles of leaves lodged itself squarely into a fin thingy inside my new blower and broke a fin thing off. So now I have to go get it fixed.

My 20 minutes of fun---cut short by a rogue leaf or something. It couldn't have been a rock, since I made sure there were no rocks in the piles of leaves.

But I can't wait to get it fixed and blow the leaves out from every spot in my yard. Then vacuum them up.