Well, let me start with yesterday afternoon...
No, actually a few weeks ago when I noticed the tree. Yeah, okay so there's this tree in our yard that hasn't yet sprouted green leaves and I was all worried about it so I checked it out only to find it was dead and termite infested. Sad and gross at the same time. I'm not a "tree-hugger" but I wanted to hug this one goodbye. It was so pretty last summer and now it's all brown and brittle. I really was sad! Plus it's our only tree in the back yard that has a branch for my bird feeder.
(my once pretty, now dead tree) :(There is one more back in the corner too, but I noticed it kicked the bucket as well! It wasn't as pretty and I wasn't as sad for it for some reason. And then about a week ago we had some strong wind that took it down...almost right on top of our ghetto above-ground pool! whew!
When I broke the news of the dead pretty tree to Josh, he was more sad about having to spend a day chopping it down and hauling it off somewhere!
So yesterday... I was relaxing in the hammock staring up at the once pretty, now pitiful tree still standing, wondering if and when it fell on its own, which way it would fall. One way would send it diving into our pool, the other way into the vacant yard behind us most likely taking power lines with it. I decided I needed to take down my bird feeder soon.
As I swung back and forth in the hammock I noticed it was considerably breezy. It was a nice compliment to the bright sun and Harley and I were thoroughly enjoying the perfect afternoon. He was in "squirrel-hunting" mode and every little noise in the trees would make his head jerk and then freeze.
Then we heard a big noise.
It was a crack like a squirrel biting into a nut, only about 10 times louder. It was coming from behind us...up in some tree over in the neighbor's yard. A gust of wind would come and then 'CRACK'!! Again! We both just stared up in the tree as if expecting a 40 pound squirrel to appear.
Hmm. No giant squirrel, no more 'CRACK'ing, I went inside.
Later last night around 10:30 I was in my closet getting dressed for bed. This is when I heard the next 'CRACK'. I froze and in that split second I honestly had a mental picture of Josh setting off fireworks with Harley in the back yard. That's what it sounded like! As I hurried out of the closet and into the bedroom I heard a series of 'CRACKS', and a huge 'CRASH' and 'THUMP'! A second later I was at the top of the stairs and yelled "JOSH!" The house shook, the power went out and I froze again. It scared me and I was standing at the top of the stairs whimpering. Josh ran up the steps, found me in the dark and held me. I was muttering something about it being our tree that fell and I needed to save my bird feeder. He held onto me and told me everything was okay and asked me if I saw it happen. I didn't, but I knew our tree had fallen and I wanted to see if it was in the pool or the neighbor's yard. Josh ran down to assess the damage while I changed clothes in the dark. As I stumbled down the stairs I heard him say,
"It wasn't our tree."
"WHAT?! Then what WAS it?!"
I lit a candle and found my way to our half-moonlit back yard to see for myself. He was right. There was my brown tree still standing with bird feeder still hanging. I looked around and realized the half moon was the only light on our whole block besides a few curious flashlights. I met Josh in the front yard with a neighbor and they were looking up at a lop-sided tree in our other next-door neighbor's back yard. A HUGE branch had broken off and fallen a looong way down, crushing our fence, and landing halfway in our backyard.
(Stupid 40 pound squirrel...find a bigger tree!)
And this was no normal sized branch. It was actually thicker than the trunk of my pretty dead tree!!
The next 15 minutes consisted of me lighting every candle I could find and Josh opening all the windows to let in the cool outside breeze. By this time it was 11pm and Josh was remembering he had an early morning ahead of him. So we closed all the downstairs windows and made our way up to our already warm, candle-lit bedroom and attempted to go to bed.
We were hot. And not in the romantic sense. Our A/C was off, the windows up there are small, and we were being reminded that heat rises. Josh usually cannot sleep in less than perfect conditions but with his early morning approaching by the minute he decided he had no other choice but to obey his tired body. I, on the other hand was wide awake and ready for adventure!
I sat for a while on the bed fanning my sweaty husband, gazing out the window at the clear, moonlit sky, beginning to remember how tired I was. After a short while I heard a loud truck on the street behind us. Voices and flashlights followed and I was suddenly no longer tired! I had a height advantage being on the second floor and watched the bucket truck come to a halt and power company guys begin traipsing through peoples' yards assessing the damage with their flashlights. Oh this was way too exciting now. (I'm easily entertained.)
Then Josh suggested that we sleep downstairs in the family room where it was cooler. So with pillows and candles in hand we made our way down and rearranged the couches and cushions to make one big "bed" for us. Much to my delight we were right under the large window looking into the back yard so I could keep up with the action. It was a lot cooler down there, but poor Josh still tossed and turned. The action stopped for a while so I decided to lie down. It was quiet without the A/C and frig running except for an occasional frog croak from the retention pond caddy-corner from us. You know, our frogs don't "ribbit." In fact, it's such a horribly strange noise that I would've never thought it came from a frog!
"rrRHAUHT, rhauht. rrRHAUHT, rhauht." And when one starts, the others copy him. Kinda annoying.
Okay, so I'm lying there actually trying to get some sleep when our friendly power company workers finally find where the problem originated. Our back yard. They never actually had to go in our back yard thankfully. They worked in the vacant yard behind us and the retention pond area. But I could hear them like they were right outside my window! You would THINK they would take into consideration what time it was, but nooooo. They had a job to do and they were gonna have fun with it. One of them had his Nextel volume on high and I kept hearing the beep-beep and then some one's loud voice. One of them kept yelling across the back yards and thought it was funny to tell his buddy to "WATCH OUT FOR THE PIT BULL IN THE YARD!" and then laugh really loud. Yeah, pretty funny dude. One of them had a slightly higher pitched voice and every time he would yell the frogs apparently understood him and replied with "rrRHAUHT, rhauht." Whatever that means.
And imagine with me the sound of power lines being jerked and pulled out of tree branches. In the middle of the night. On the lumpy couch with a snoring husband. Here he is enjoying a full REM cycle and all I can think is "action SMaction! I want sleep!"
So somehow amidst the drowning noises of emergency graveyard shift workers, obnoxious frogs, and random snores, I found myself drifting off to dreamland despite the fact that my feet kept accidentally touching Josh's. AAHHGG!! (Is it just me?!)
I don't know how long it lasted but I was awakened suddenly by another noise. A familiar noise that definitely required electricity. The upstairs A/C cut on and I was happy but not thrilled about walking up and closing all the windows at 2am. I left him sleeping on the couch with a nice breeze and I crashed upstairs in our bed. By myself. With real air.
(note: we do not have bushes in that corner... that is the fallen tree branch. It's like half a tree! The fence is behind it, now covered.)
(front view of broken tree...that branch fell from the TOP!)
Needless to say, I slept in. And now I hear a chainsaw coming from the neighbor's yard so I'd better go get my dose of action for the day!
