A Wet, Gray, Hazy Sunday Morning

7:24

One Tree Less In Woodlawn

I am up at 6:50, the walks and garden wet from last night's rain, a gray lake and sky, a few boats, a water skier, and 66º, the high in mid 70's.  At the moment, all I can hear are the songs of the purple martins and Terri Gross' Fresh Air.  I am not sure why I am sitting in the house (habit), so I am going out to sit on the front porch, break the pattern, be Zorba like.  It's nice.

First Cut

Timber

Nicely Sliced,  Like A Huge Beef Tenderloin

Yesterday was taken over by the downing of our huge maple, which was so damaged by Friday afternoon's microburst, that it had to be taken down.  I am amazed at the efficiency of the tree guys. We have used them before, so they were familiar with our yard.  Malan, the main guy, decided to take the tree down in one swoop, dropping it right in the middle of our yard, damaging nothing other than the yard.  It took about three minutes, dropping more quickly than expected because the middle was rotten.  He then did more trimming for us (Evie), climbing the tress, using ropes, taking a couple of huge branches off our willow in the backyard, which tended to lean over our neighbor's house, and trimming a few branches on the maples in our front yard.  It then took three guys a couple of hours to mulch the smaller branches.  They, then, brought in a small tractor to pick up the huge pieces of the trunk and drop it in their truck.  They will be back later in the week to grind the stump.

Cleaning Up With A Chain Saw

I think the shock and anxiety of the tree, the storm, having company, took it out of us, so that we were not much good the rest of the day.  The dishes sat dirty in the sink and dish washer, and we did little in the yard or house.  I am really enjoying my new book on my Kindle, A GOD IN RUINS, by Kate Atkinson, so I spent a good part of the day reading it, mostly because the loan expires in a couple of days.  Evie mostly sat out on the dock, fishing, with some luck.  My only chore was a trip to the Transfer Station always stimulating.

Around 4:00, even though it was gray, the lake looked quiet and inviting, so we kayaked over to Long Point, to the bay, only to find that everyone else seemed to have the same idea, so lots of power boats appeared, cruising the lake, creating a choppy, at times difficult to travel the lake.  So we cut our paddle short, came home, grabbed a couple of beers and pretzels and sat out on our dock for the rest of the afternoon, enjoying the quieting lake.

For dinner, we had the leftover koftes from the previous nights dinner, and struggled to find something to watch on TV.  We started a couple of series which were supposed to be good but we did not have the patience to stay with them because they seemed so silly, so gross at times.  We are getting old.  I was anxious to go read, so went up to be early, around 10:00, hoping for a good night's sleep, now that the excitement and anxiety of the tree downing was over.