Weblog 164
March 29, 2009~ 12:00am
If you read this blog last week, you'll recall my dismay at my neighbor accosting me just after work, complaining about my pine tree. I was upset, yes.....but it also set me to thinking about the thing more seriously than I've ever done, and it's true, it's messy....a hazard....destructive to gutters and roof....and yes, it's time the old thing is felled.
It saddens me, but I have to realize I don't live on acres of ground where a 60 to 70 ft. tree might shed, or even topple without much fuss or danger. This one grows right up to the house, and it's too close for comfort. It now extends over both my roof-- and the the roof next door-- and is poisoning the soil with its acidic needles, leaving vast patches of bare earth where nothing will grow. Even being the only tree in this whole little line of houses, the poor thing has become both feared and despised. Ice storms bring down branches, some nearly as wide as the the yard-- and it's a blessing (or just dumb luck) that they haven't done real damage to property. (Yet.) It's been a fear of mine, and it's time to do something.
Imagine this picture without the tree-
- pretty barren, I'd say. That'll be my place soon. Irritating as the neighbor was in the way she confronted me, I have to admit she has a valid point, so I've contracted to have the towering nuisance cut down one day this coming week.
I shall be very sad. The back of my house will look mangier and more rundown than ever with its new exposure. Time to get new railings and a safer, solid floor for the porch. Time to plant some flowers and get an azalea bush to replace the one that died (probably from being strangled by tree roots....lol) Time to simply face the music. In life, some things must go when they prove to be detrimental. Much as we like to cling, when something looms so large as to become a danger, the only decision is to rid oneself of it once and for all. I don't take to change easily. This is hard-- "pruning" one's life always is an ordeal of sorts- and one that's particularly difficult for me, but the time has come. Goodbye old friend. We had a good run but it's time to part ways. Hope your mulch decorates many gardens. Your fragrance will be missed.
March 29, 2009~ 8:15pm
This is an 'out of sorts' day....and who knows why. It's gloomy- drizzly and windy, temperatures hovering at fifty, but feels colder. Sundays create a sorrowing sometimes for me.
That might be part of it --just an old emotional conditioning left over from school days, and it's never really left me.
Jobs run Monday through Friday too, so it persists: it's deeply engrained. The shootings at the nursing home in North Carolina horrified me as well....so senseless and brutal. So unpredictable. Then my sister called while I was at mum's today, to confirm plans for Easter, and asked me if I'd heard anything about my son possibly going to Afghanistan since they're calling up more troops. I told her I hadn't heard anything and I hadn't thought about it- probably on purpose-- just shielded myself from thinking about it in a state of denial probably, but I suppose it could happen, so now that's sitting heavy on the heart as well.
Yes, today it's the brutality of life that's bothering me. The weather plays right into this frame of mind. It was a day of scudding thunderheads and dark gray skies...maybe sleep will set me to rights again. I'm closing the book on this day and putting it to bed - and I hope to sleep well. Lovely dreams to all.... (sometimes that's all we have. That small respite.)
March 31, 2009~ 7:45pm
Took the day off so Wayne could have his eyes examined, and since he'd be 'blind-as-a-bat', pupils dilated, I needed to do the driving and help him pick out new frames. We ate both breakfast and dinner in restaurants, and browsed in Borders and Barnes & Noble before the appointment. It's a lovely day here in Pittsburgh- I bought an Eat'n Park "orchard fruit" pie for myself-- which is peaches, apricots and cherries. Looks delicious but I'm too stuffed from the crab cakes at dinner to enjoy some this evening.
The big change was pulling into my carport this evening.......the tree is gone.
Bye, pine. Actually, I've been saying goodbye to it since last week, when I knew it would be cut down sometime this week-- just didn't know it'd be today. My neighbors Margaret and Lou came out to greet me. Margaret was pleased as punch. (Her grandson said, "Are you mad at her?" LOL!!!) so I know there was some discussion about our conversation last week but I said, "No. The tree was too big. I was always afraid a good ice storm or windstorm would knock it down on the houses." Lou just said, "What happened?" grinning as only Lou can. I shall miss it. The place looks bare. Just looks like a line of shotgun shacks now. Naked and sad looking. The sagging porch and the pitiful roof are very noticeable- but Margaret said her dining room is 'so much BRIGHTER!' (Me? I like my house sealed up and cave-like...cozy) but my buddy the pine tree had to go. It was a disaster waiting to happen, and had become destructive to others' property, so-- 'Goodbye, old friend.'
Me and the birds...yep....we're gonna miss you.
April 1, 2009~ 7:30pm
Here I sit....(when normally I'd be in a robe, make up off and heading up to bed) but I'm waiting on the tree-cutters to show up so I can pay them. {{{{{sigh}}}}}
Thought I'd share some musings about the strange effect being in Barnes & Noble had on me yesterday. I experienced what can only be called a minor panic attack. Granted, I have sensory OVERLOAD whenever I'm in stores- especially, large CONFUSING, all-encompassing PLANETS of merchandize. The equation is simple for me: anything too large to be called a 'boutique' gives me psychological bends. I HATE IT!
The sheer size is obscene.
(This isn't the South Hills Village Pittsburgh store, but close enough. 28,000 square-fricking-feet. Only one store......) in a chain that grosses $5,410,828,000.00 annually...if that's not excessive, I don't know what is! Holy crap! It's like Dick Cheney's summer home.
Everything felt too 'canned' and 'neat'. Too trendy. Too.....TOO much. Those aisles and aisles of merchandize and yuppie coffee bar and music bay and tote bags, booklites, games, magazines, books, books, ink smell, coffee smell, money smell -- I honestly thought I would throw up.
LOL!!! It hits me like a torpedo. I begin to tremble. Get too warm.... get clammy, begin to hyperventilate.......what can I say? I ain't a shopper. It feels, people-- like the Roman EMPIRE--- or the Last Days of Pompeii. Even the architecture is overdone and clashing.
The outside THREE STORY facade is a barfsome combination of Art Deco and Stonehenge- just ghastly in its gaucheness. Walking in there and trying to choose just one thing is for me....IMPOSSIBLE. You know what it is??
What they really feel like, those paladia of consumerism?
I feel trapped in 'Orwell Hell'...in a programmed 'prettiness' that just feels...... 'Dead'.
(Ok, rant done. The damn woodcutters are still not here.) {{{{sigh}}}}
Note: I put the check in a envelope marked "Tree Cutters"-- signed it in thick black magic marker-- pinned it to a sash that hangs beneath a wreath on the back door-- and I'm going to bed. 'After work' is "after work"... not going on 8:30 at night. Sheesh.
***
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If you read this blog last week, you'll recall my dismay at my neighbor accosting me just after work, complaining about my pine tree. I was upset, yes.....but it also set me to thinking about the thing more seriously than I've ever done, and it's true, it's messy....a hazard....destructive to gutters and roof....and yes, it's time the old thing is felled.
It saddens me, but I have to realize I don't live on acres of ground where a 60 to 70 ft. tree might shed, or even topple without much fuss or danger. This one grows right up to the house, and it's too close for comfort. It now extends over both my roof-- and the the roof next door-- and is poisoning the soil with its acidic needles, leaving vast patches of bare earth where nothing will grow. Even being the only tree in this whole little line of houses, the poor thing has become both feared and despised. Ice storms bring down branches, some nearly as wide as the the yard-- and it's a blessing (or just dumb luck) that they haven't done real damage to property. (Yet.) It's been a fear of mine, and it's time to do something.
Imagine this picture without the tree-
- pretty barren, I'd say. That'll be my place soon. Irritating as the neighbor was in the way she confronted me, I have to admit she has a valid point, so I've contracted to have the towering nuisance cut down one day this coming week.
I shall be very sad. The back of my house will look mangier and more rundown than ever with its new exposure. Time to get new railings and a safer, solid floor for the porch. Time to plant some flowers and get an azalea bush to replace the one that died (probably from being strangled by tree roots....lol) Time to simply face the music. In life, some things must go when they prove to be detrimental. Much as we like to cling, when something looms so large as to become a danger, the only decision is to rid oneself of it once and for all. I don't take to change easily. This is hard-- "pruning" one's life always is an ordeal of sorts- and one that's particularly difficult for me, but the time has come. Goodbye old friend. We had a good run but it's time to part ways. Hope your mulch decorates many gardens. Your fragrance will be missed.
March 29, 2009~ 8:15pm
This is an 'out of sorts' day....and who knows why. It's gloomy- drizzly and windy, temperatures hovering at fifty, but feels colder. Sundays create a sorrowing sometimes for me.
That might be part of it --just an old emotional conditioning left over from school days, and it's never really left me.
Jobs run Monday through Friday too, so it persists: it's deeply engrained. The shootings at the nursing home in North Carolina horrified me as well....so senseless and brutal. So unpredictable. Then my sister called while I was at mum's today, to confirm plans for Easter, and asked me if I'd heard anything about my son possibly going to Afghanistan since they're calling up more troops. I told her I hadn't heard anything and I hadn't thought about it- probably on purpose-- just shielded myself from thinking about it in a state of denial probably, but I suppose it could happen, so now that's sitting heavy on the heart as well.
Yes, today it's the brutality of life that's bothering me. The weather plays right into this frame of mind. It was a day of scudding thunderheads and dark gray skies...maybe sleep will set me to rights again. I'm closing the book on this day and putting it to bed - and I hope to sleep well. Lovely dreams to all.... (sometimes that's all we have. That small respite.)
March 31, 2009~ 7:45pm
Took the day off so Wayne could have his eyes examined, and since he'd be 'blind-as-a-bat', pupils dilated, I needed to do the driving and help him pick out new frames. We ate both breakfast and dinner in restaurants, and browsed in Borders and Barnes & Noble before the appointment. It's a lovely day here in Pittsburgh- I bought an Eat'n Park "orchard fruit" pie for myself-- which is peaches, apricots and cherries. Looks delicious but I'm too stuffed from the crab cakes at dinner to enjoy some this evening.
The big change was pulling into my carport this evening.......the tree is gone.
Bye, pine. Actually, I've been saying goodbye to it since last week, when I knew it would be cut down sometime this week-- just didn't know it'd be today. My neighbors Margaret and Lou came out to greet me. Margaret was pleased as punch. (Her grandson said, "Are you mad at her?" LOL!!!) so I know there was some discussion about our conversation last week but I said, "No. The tree was too big. I was always afraid a good ice storm or windstorm would knock it down on the houses." Lou just said, "What happened?" grinning as only Lou can. I shall miss it. The place looks bare. Just looks like a line of shotgun shacks now. Naked and sad looking. The sagging porch and the pitiful roof are very noticeable- but Margaret said her dining room is 'so much BRIGHTER!' (Me? I like my house sealed up and cave-like...cozy) but my buddy the pine tree had to go. It was a disaster waiting to happen, and had become destructive to others' property, so-- 'Goodbye, old friend.'
April 1, 2009~ 7:30pm
Here I sit....(when normally I'd be in a robe, make up off and heading up to bed) but I'm waiting on the tree-cutters to show up so I can pay them. {{{{{sigh}}}}}
Thought I'd share some musings about the strange effect being in Barnes & Noble had on me yesterday. I experienced what can only be called a minor panic attack. Granted, I have sensory OVERLOAD whenever I'm in stores- especially, large CONFUSING, all-encompassing PLANETS of merchandize. The equation is simple for me: anything too large to be called a 'boutique' gives me psychological bends. I HATE IT!
The sheer size is obscene.
(This isn't the South Hills Village Pittsburgh store, but close enough. 28,000 square-fricking-feet. Only one store......) in a chain that grosses $5,410,828,000.00 annually...if that's not excessive, I don't know what is! Holy crap! It's like Dick Cheney's summer home.
Everything felt too 'canned' and 'neat'. Too trendy. Too.....TOO much. Those aisles and aisles of merchandize and yuppie coffee bar and music bay and tote bags, booklites, games, magazines, books, books, ink smell, coffee smell, money smell -- I honestly thought I would throw up.
LOL!!! It hits me like a torpedo. I begin to tremble. Get too warm.... get clammy, begin to hyperventilate.......what can I say? I ain't a shopper. It feels, people-- like the Roman EMPIRE--- or the Last Days of Pompeii. Even the architecture is overdone and clashing.
The outside THREE STORY facade is a barfsome combination of Art Deco and Stonehenge- just ghastly in its gaucheness. Walking in there and trying to choose just one thing is for me....IMPOSSIBLE. You know what it is??
What they really feel like, those paladia of consumerism?
I feel trapped in 'Orwell Hell'...in a programmed 'prettiness' that just feels...... 'Dead'.
(Ok, rant done. The damn woodcutters are still not here.) {{{{sigh}}}}
Note: I put the check in a envelope marked "Tree Cutters"-- signed it in thick black magic marker-- pinned it to a sash that hangs beneath a wreath on the back door-- and I'm going to bed. 'After work' is "after work"... not going on 8:30 at night. Sheesh.
(Return To Weekly Archives)
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