The electricity on our block has gone off three times in the past two weeks. The first time it took them an hour to get it back on. We thought it went out because of the thunderstorm that had gone through. The second time lasted about forty-five minutes and happened on a dry clear day at midnight just as I was trying to go to bed. Once the electricity goes off I can't sleep in my bed because I'd snore so loud it would keep Bill awake and he'd have to go out on the couch. I use a CPAP machine to control my snoring and sleep apnea. Without electricity it won't work, of course. So, I go out in the living room and sit in the glider and try to doze off until I can go back to bed. The third time the electricity went off was just three days ago in the middle of the day and for no apparent reason. No rain, no lightning, nothing. It was off for twenty minutes. The powers that be that get the electricity working again were in our backyard and saw how the branches of the mulberry tree were pushing the wires out too far. It wasn't just our backyard that had branches entwined in the power lines. All up and down the backyards everyone's trees were hitting and pushing wires. So, they surmised that it was the overgrown trees that were playing havoc with the electricity.
The trees aren't actually overgrown. They are just grown, doing what the ought to be doing naturally. But when you've got wires strung across the yards then the trees become a nuisance. For three years now, Bill has been urging me to call a tree service and get the branches cut on our mulberry. I have resisted for three years. I know how butchered it will look once the tree people get their hands on it. And I couldn't bear it. So, all week now the tree cutters have been progressing down the backyards. Today they are in our neighbor's yard two doors away, the neighbor's yard with the barking dogs. Thankfully, the dogs aren't out in the yard right now or all I would be hearing would be barking instead of chain saws. They were in the yard next to that one just an hour ago and trimmed back this one tall pine tree to just a long tall tree trunk with a few totally bare branches jutting out into the sky like a tortured beast of some kind. It is a thing of ugly. Huge chunks of leaf-filled branches are coming down as I speak in my neighbor's yard on my left. My plan is to go on the deck when they reach our yard and plead with them not to butcher our mulberry, to only trim what is absolutely necessary. After all, we'll have to look at it for the next two or three years till it fills back out some again. No matter what they do, the tree will look horrible, sigh. Another benchmark to add to my summer of sulk. Although, I must say my sulking has dissipated quite a lot since I wrote about it. What also helped was that I decided to make the catbana look more Floridian and festive. I went to the local party outlets and bought some luau decorations. I got a pink flamingo wind sock, some leis, some hanging palm trees and suns, hanging Chinese lanterns, a small plastic palm tree that sits on the table, some little umbrellas that sit on your drinks, and to top it off, a coconut monkey. When I sit out there now I am greatly amused. At least I will be until I have to sit out there and look at the tortured trees. Bill calls me Mother Nature and believe me this is killing Mother Nature. The men in trees have progressed to the my next door neighbor's yard and are attacking the mulberry tree at the fence. There is going to be nothing left of that tree, for sure. Sure enough, they scalped it right down. An hour and a half later, they are in our mulberry tree and it's painful to see how much they are cutting. To my point of view, they are cutting way back where they don't need to. Butchering just like I knew they would. I guess I should be grateful that we have a lot of other trees in the background to fill in the greenery that is now gone. I hate not being able to control what they are cutting. I asked them before they started if they wouldn't butcher the tree. We have to look out there at them for the next couple of years. It had no effect on them. And that was just one section of the tree. There is more to go. There's going to be two nude bumps sticking up there. And more ugliness to view once they hit the neighbor's yard on our right. They did those tree branches two years ago and it was hideous for such a long time. It makes me almost want the whole tree cut down instead of having those monstrous mutations staring at me. Why am I so sensitive to this kind of stuff? I dunno. Maybe I am Mother Nature incarnate. No wonder I hurt all over. The whole world is hurting all over what with pollution, global warming, polar caps melting, polar bears dying out because the ice floes are disappearing, numerous animal and insect species going extinct, the rain forest being cut down, the oil being depleted from under the earth's skin, bees being confused by cellphone towers, war scarring the ground and the minds of those involved, and it goes on and on and on... Guess it's time for me to go vegetate in front of the boob tube for a bit. This has been draining. AFTERWORD:
Guess it wasn't the trees after all... Why it took them longer this last time was because they took the time to change all the switches all down the line. Hopefully, that will be all it was. I'm starting to know what it's like in Baghdad except they only have electricity three hours a day if they are lucky. I'm taking a chance in finalizing this entry but here it goes... |
