Health

... using a rake.

I've used rakes, and I know they raise blisters. Get good gloves -- problem solved. But the idea of building a machine just to move a ton of air to blow the leaves around strikes me as one of the dumbest ideas ever.

I was an undergraduate when the grounds crew switched from rakes to leaf blowers, and we had to start closing all the classroom windows to hold class. They didn't seem to work any faster, either, because they spent more time chasing the leaves all over the place than they ever spent raking them.