Monday, October 20, 2008

let me tell you about my tree

We had a tree. Every day, I looked out my window and saw this tree. And, it didn't bother me. But one day, someone came along and chopped off part of the tree in a horrible act of pruning. It was probably the only thing that could save the life of that little tree, but it was such a bad cut, I couldn't stand to look at that little tree any longer.

It's not my tree, though. It belongs to the city.

So, one day, I called the city and left a voicemail detailing the sad story of the little oak tree that couldn't. He had been eaten alive by gypsy moths at that point. One terrible blow after another...

I got a call back. The city manager, or whatever his title is, told me it did look pretty chopped and promised they would come and replace it in the fall which is apparently the best time to replace a tree.

I felt good about all this. A little sad that I'd given the tree a death sentence, but happy that the view out my window would be improved.

So, we waited and waited and finally fall arrived along with tree removal season.

Some one came out one day and painted green lines showing the sanitary sewer on the road and sidewalk.

Another person came out and tied a white ribbon (signifying tree sadness, I think) around the lower branch of the tree and painted a line around the tree on the ground.

Another person came out and painted blue lines showing us where the water lines are.

Today, a big truck came and yanked the little tree out of the ground. Good-bye tree. He was never happy here as he came out so easily. He never took root. I hope someone plants him in a field of trees and gives him a shot. I'll pretend that's the plan.

After the tree came out of the ground, another person came out and painted yellow lines on the grass and road. I'm not sure why. He even went across the street to the neighbor's house and maybe did a little painting. None of that made sense. After the man in the bright green shirt with the yellow paint took his pictures and left, a nice young man showed up and painted red lines besides the yellow lines. He seemed to be smiling as he took his pictures as if to say, "I can't believe I get paid for this!" Then, Verizon came out and painted orange lines in pretty close proximity to the yellow and red lines. I think his was a lesson in colors because Yellow and Red do make orange! If not that, I'm not sure what function he served.

Now, there's a hole in the ground where the sad little tree was. But, not a big hole.

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