11 Comments
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Tracy Keibler's avatar

I have “holy envy” of your storytelling ability!

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OldFert's avatar

Very enjoyable. One of the most Lileksian columns I've read since OGH stopped working at the place downtown.

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Rob's avatar

I applaud your decision to stand pat. It hit me a year ago. Why am I fixing and improving all this stuff just to pass it on to someone else? No, I'm going to stay here and enjoy the fruits of my labor. It will mean more work, more projects in the future, but damn it, about three weeks before I die, it will all be done and I can sigh huge sigh of contentment after decades of work. Then, I'll die, because there is nothing left to do.

No matter, better that I enjoy all of it than some bonehead who knows nothing of the work that went into it.

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Stephen Borchert's avatar

“Get thee behind me, Satan!” “Yes, boss.” (Puts on Satan the Leaf Sucker).

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Thomas Sowell Shakedown Party's avatar

Regular warranty service has helped me with an Electrolux front-load washer and Bosch dishwasher in the past. But I won't buy extended warranties. Just today I got a new part ordered under warranty for a new LED bathroom faucet so we can have light in the sink when running water, something I don't really need but has been a fun toy since I put it in on Friday.

Re: James's leaf sucker, if it's like mine, the device is designed to shred the leaves as they go into the bag, thus cutting down on space in that bag and the lawn refuse bag. I would not think that would be conducive to sand pick-up. But if the ripped bag's the problem, what do I know?

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Graydon DeCamp's avatar

Oh, how I understand the frustration of a corded, plug-in blower.I understand for ALL the reasons he cites. What I do NOT understand is why he hasn't done as I did by buying a lightweight, inexpensive, battery-powered blower. Mine is named "FAJOMRI," which I assume is the name of some company in China, or just a cute word. My point is that the blower, which has two batteries and a charger, is powerful enough to blow leaves and sizeable twigs, runs at three speeds, lasts 15-30 minutes on a charge (depending on which speeds you use). The charger fully re-ups a battery in a couple of hours, but I've never needed to use it long enough to require TWO full batteries at one go. I mean, who wants to spend more than an hour blowing leaves at a time? Alas, It has no bag. No, not 'alas!,' because on my heavily wooded, acre in Northern Michigan, I can ALWAYS find a corner to let the leaves mulch up in, Bags? Nah. Useless. The company that makes my sainted Fajomri may well make the differently-named, battery powered string cutter I use as well. Both have the same color scheme and lettering style. Both devices eliminate the need for a 120-v cord that invariably gets in the way. Wake up!

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Steve's avatar

From what JL wrote, it sounds like he's VACUUMING UP the leaves, not just blowing them around. Can this be? Normally leaf vacuums are lawn mowers with that big cart thing huffing along behind them. I don't know how many leaves you could get into a bag attached to your blower ... one rake-full?

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Astrid Ronning King's avatar

In my experience--granted with Brit leaf-blowers not Yank--you can either blow OR vacuum up with the thing (before you swear and chuck it over the fence).

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John Sullivan's avatar

In the words of Bart Simpson ‘ I didn’t think it was possible but this both sucks and blows’

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Flange Creature's avatar

Something broke after a short life... I've had some pets that applied to. Them I felt sorry for.

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Paul Havemann's avatar

I can relate. Oh, how I can relate. Two years and five months ago I purchased an ungodly expensive flatbed scanner for my hobbies which include, yes, scanning books and photos and slides and ancient, probably cursed, documents.

It decided to not work one day, two years and five months after I bought it. So I got out my warranty. You'll never guess, not if you tried for five months, how long the warranty was for.

Yup.

I think it was one of those cursed documents.

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