"I Think That I Shall Never See..."

...a billboard lethal as a tree." With apologies to Ogden Nash, I think I'd have preferred billboards this week.

Thursday was interesting. I got home at noon, had a little lunch, got Sera ready to go out to run errands, and a tree fell down in our front yard. It split at the juncture of two branches and the part that broke fell into the street. I went outside to look at it and it had dark marks on it as if it had been struck by lightning. I looked up into the remaining part of the tree and saw a split further up. I called a few tree removal places before I found one that could come out right away, and when the "arborialist" got there, he took a quick look at the situation and gave me some options. First, he could cut off the part that had fallen and haul it away for $125, or he could cut down the whole tree for $850. I think the second price might have been exaggerated to persuade me to take the first option. He looked up at the split and said that it looked like it could heal. He said it had been carpenter ants and the split had probably been there for months. The wind was pretty stiff that day, and after gust he said, "See? If that part was going to come down it would have already." So, I took him at his word and he and his crew of three got to work. 15 minutes later I paid him the $125 and they left me with an immaculate yard.

An hour later the rest of the tree fell on our house.

It would be amusing if it weren't for the fact that the tree fell on the house. It didn't hurt anything, but it was pretty annoying. I went to class, and Magi took care of the rest of it when the guy arrived later in the evening. He only ended up charging us a total of $550, so I guess I feel lucky. They did a good job cleaning up the tree. You can't even tell there was one there.

On Friday, we packed up Sera and went to Rhapsody in Green, an annual summer celebration in Elkhart. It seems like all the midwest towns have these all summer long. There's no good reason. They must like carnival food. While we were walking around Island Park, where the celebration occurs, a branch fell out of an overhead tree from about 60 feet up. I don't know why I stopped in my tracks, but I did, and it hit the ground and exploded right in front of me. I think the trees are out to get me.