Today, there was a knock on my door and two tree men said they would take down the pine tree I have in my back yard which was hit by lightning a few months ago and had deteriorated from then very quickly. Earlier, bugs had gone into it, and taken what little life was left in it. So due to the excellent price they estimated for the job, I said, “OK.”

The first thing they did was put a ladder up against the huge tree. The next thing was to cut those branches off. While cutting off those branches, one fell into my nice ol’ bench and smashed it good. So not only did I lose my pine tree today, but also my nice ol’ bench. OK, and a few or so nice big pavers. Eegads! But the price was good to do the tree, and due to the quick loss of life in that tree, I was always nervous about when a branch may fall off and hit one of us. Not to mention that it IS hurricane season. Yikes!

This is Danny. He is the one who took the tree down, while Lee went ahead and did clean up and hauling some of the branches out. My front yard is full of branches and tree trunk due to I have to wait till week two in August for bulk trash. I can’t move the stuff into my swale until then. These guys are going to come back then to haul it all out there for me then. They are.

After the tree take down was over, the FDSP was let loose. They noticed something was awry. First Baby ran to the stump and sniffed it till she sneezed. Lilian was exactly irate as Raven. Meanwhile, Taylor needed to let off some steam by telling everyone what happened. She was going forth to find her tree.

When that didn’t work, well, instead of comfort food, she has a comfort toy. She grabbed her lovely white ball and squeezed it enough to make it squeak squeak squeak! That made her happy and not irate anymore.

Meanwhile, we are very fine about losing this tree on one hand because it was smack dab in the middle of the yard and obstructed the view from here to there and back again. On the other hand, this was our shampoo station, and now I feel I need to rearrange quite a bit to get straight with a new set up.

By the way, what does “True-dat,” mean?

Helen