Roast Beef on Sundays Is Alright

One of the downsides to living where there are four seasons is the transition from summer to autumn, especially for the trees and their leaves. I am very much of the 'live and let live' persuasion which translates to the 'lie and let them lay' position on leave gathering. 

I've noticed this again this year in my neighborhood; some of us have gathered so many, it's as if we're waiting for them to fall from the trees and nab them on the first bounce. We rake them up and some of us, maybe you have the same kind of neighbors where you live (maybe you are that neighbor where you live) who then place them in those large brown stick-your-leaves-in-here paper bags to await pickup by the trash folks.

I saw in Wednesday's paper the City of Norwich announcement on when the actual pick-up is and it's not for the better part of almost two weeks I think. I didn't read it too closely because we have no trees on our property and I refuse to get caught up in that whole "I'm raking leaves that aren't mine because I'm a terrific neighbor" scene. I'm not fooling anybody. My neighbors know I'm not a great guy and tend to tolerate me I suspect because they are genuinely fond of my wife (who is a terrific person) and wonder what she did to be saddled with me (two words: bar bet; two more: lost a). 

For millions of years, I estimate, we as a species did nothing with the leaves as they fell. You see all that dirt around us? I have a funny feeling where it might have come from and I'm not sure what we're accomplishing with how we're operating now. While I wasn't looking, compost has become a lost cause, it seems, perhaps even a dark art. 

In its place, we have created a first-class annoyance, the leaf blower. We went from devices that looked like vacuums and picked up fallen leaves and plopped them into bags (do you remember those?) to a gadget that hangs from your hip and can be used to blow leaves that have fallen on your property into someone else's yard or out into the street all at a decibel level that makes the inside of a jet engine feel like the library's reading room.

I truly believe leaf blowers are a much more accurate and closer to an authentic symbol of America in the 21st Century than either the Bald Eagle or the Stars & Stripes. There's nothing that says "Wha?!" more than a guy on a weekend afternoon filling the time between sitting on the couch watching football games by being outside working a leaf blower wearing dark shades with Ibuds in both ears. And I'd ask him why he's doing what he's doing, but he's as oblivious to me right now as I am to him for the rest of the year. Ahh, Sweet Suburbia. We've got Mother Nature on the run--now what?
-bill kenny