Sucker!

I'm a sucker for a gadget.

A while ago we bought, OK I bought, a leaf blower. Our house has, and is surrounded by, trees, most of which lose their leaves around now. I hate clearing leaves and the concept of a gadget that does all the hard work seemed like a good one.

The thing has been used less than 10 times. It hurts me. It's so long ago I can't remember which bit is the source of pain.

It's got a vacuum function and when it's in suck mode it chews up what it hoovers up and then dumps the chewed up bits in an outdoor vaccum bag. There's some kind of whizzy blade thing that does the chopping. It might be a side effect of the whizzy blade spewing out little bits of stuff at hight speed that inflicts injury.

In blower mode it's fairly aggressive and it could be that it's this mode that causes me problems. It's supposed to just blow leaves I guess but it also blows small stones, and maybe it'sa these that end up hitting my legs and forcing me to suffer.

I must have used it last in the summer, although I can't think why, because I know that I was wearing shorts, which I now know I shouldn't. It's a bit like the strimmer, another gadget but we do use this one (although I hate it), in that it hurts me, especially when I'm in shorts mode. It strims things which is chopping them at high speed which have been known to be flung in my general direction at a high velocity – ouch.

Actually the more I think about it I think it's the suck mode that sucks. I think the whizzy chopper flings things at the vacuum bag with such force they hit my leg which is right next to the bag.

So don't buy a leaf blower sucky thing. But do buy something much cheaper which is fantastic: big hands. Well they're not sold as "big hands" but that's what they are. Two big bits of plastic with a claw edge and a strap to hold them to your hand. They might be called leaf grabbers, or something. Anyway they don't cost much. I can't remember exactly how much, to me it was just another gadget, but they were less than a tenner and they are brilliant. They're great for moving leaves around and for scooping them up.