Spring Break for the weary!
Finally!! It has been a long–fast 9 weeks! I tried to post…wasn’t going to happen. After BOMBING my very first test back (literally. failed. less than passing.) I am back up and over the minimum required to graduate in May. And of course I am going for the A again. I got to. It’s close. It’s within reach! And since I seriously do not do ANYTHING else now…(that includes: exercise, cooking, laundry, cleaning, sleeping….) I should be able to manage it. Its a boost for the class and a boost for my grade point average. Its all about the resumé now!
Anyway I won’t go on and on about boring school stuff (even though I have gotten to do LOTS of skills and get experiences these last few weeks that no one really wants to hear about!) because I want to catch up on LIFE! And laundry!
My BF, the BEST!! in the land, made a valiant attempt over the weekend….cleaned and dried and folded AND put away! Thank you thank you thank you…and I love you….and I am truly sorry about what a sucky GF I have been…I promise it will get better!!! Please hang in there!! XO
But, now 4 days go by and wtf?? a pile of clothes again! What a rip! So in between posts and making a half dinner (from a box, but with some ingredients!) and driving my mother to the doctor, exercising, and the inevitable homework (tests when we get back and some other stuff) I will try and do this here housework! It may not happen all today! But I think I can fix it up by tomorrow afternoon! Then I can have a whole week to slack off!! Maintenance, people!! It’s all about maintaining!
So I need to update my Ipod. It’s not as crammed up with junk anymore so it works alot better now. After my epic meltdown last summer with the maximum capacity overload, I wiped it out and just put on the music I use for running or driving. Much smarter. 30,ooo songs is nice but it’s really not realistic for anything except maybe a radio station and even then, they only play what someone wants to hear. Over and over and over again! And I need some new music!
And I need to hit the road! With my feet. Me and my sissy are doing another crazy running adventure…for charity of course. But that won’t make it any easier. 6 miles and a cart following us, breathing down our backs, putting on the pressure, just waiting for us to fall below the minimum time to complete, and ready to scoop us up off the road and drive us to the finish line! HA! She says it won’t happen! I hope she is right! That ground hits hard though on my out of shape feet (and body!) I haven’t gained any weight—mostly because I don’t have time to eat! but I haven’t gained any muscle either or tone or shape….then there is the Warrior Dash! It’s that time again! So be prepared to hear ALL about that! I need Tony Horton to bring it! To my house and get me off my fat a**! P90WTF??? It only works if you actually do it!
Anyway…That’s it for now! I will go look for something good to post as a picture for the top. Something that is NOT snow. It’s gorgeous today in the midwest! Chicago is teasing us for spring!
Happy St. Pat’s Day to all who celebrate.
Please give a quick thought to the folks out there in Japan trying to keep it together for another day, and wish them the best before you have that drink!
And here’s a little shout out to my new, number one fan! Stevie! Hi baby! Love you! Now get back to school stuff please!!
Thanks for hanging with me for a bit! More later!
Dang! My neighbor is trying to start a riot over here!!
If you read me, you know I live in the Chicago area, and even if you don’t read me, I just told you, so…
This is MOSTLY Bears territory around these parts. We do have the Packer fans of course. We ARE a tightly populated, close proximity region. Dense, even. With people of all sorts. And that’s cool. Except this weekend.
In case you haven’t heard, or have been out of the country, or just don’t read the paper or watch the news or look at the internet, this weekend has a football game going on. It’s kind of a big one. It’s for our NFC championship title and then the Superbowl. People DO get a little nuts!
It’s the Green Bay Packers of Wisconsin and the Chicago Bears of Illinois. Playing in OUR town. In OUR stadium. In OUR lifetime! It’s only been about 70 years since they played each other in a championship game! Seriously! 70 years!! (FYI–Chicago won that game AND the 1941 version of a Superbowl, played at Wrigley Field no less!) And I have to say, it is pretty exciting!
But my neighbor is like 80 years old and lives mostly alone, except for her daughter, who is not there 24/7! Good thing football is played in winter. Less traffic and likelihood of hanging around outside comparing teams.
Basically the city of Chicago, Green Bay, and probably pretty much all of the south to north area of Illinois and Wisconsin will shut down for a few hours on Sunday to see what will happen on this historic day! And it’s not just me.
I can almost hear my sister’s eyeballs rolling inside her head, thinking that I am being overly dramatic. Uh uh. Click on any sports link on any internet, the game will be there. And it sucks for Pittsburgh and NY because they play too, for the Superbowl, but no one seems to care. At least no where around here!
These are some quotes from articles I thought were funny (the first two are from the same one–click here to read the whole thing):
Not that the Super Bowl seems to matter much: Packers fans said beating the Bears at Soldier Field would be a wonderful cake, with a Super Bowl victory serving as the frosting.
AND THIS:
“For guys who have followed the Bears all their life and truly hate the Packers, yeah, this is their Super Bowl,” said Mark Foster, 54, who plans to erect a 5-foot (1.5-meter) inflatable Bears helmet outside his home in Lansing, south of Chicago. “We can lose 50 to nothing in the Super Bowl to Pittsburgh or the Jets, but if we beat the Packers, who cares?”
AND THIS (A little history if you have the time—click it!):
The next chapter in the “NFL’s oldest rivalry” puts the Bears and the Packers up against each other for a spot in the Super Bowl. Some are saying this is the biggest game in the teams’ history; they’ve faced off 181 times before – dating back to 1921 – but only once in the playoffs, in 1941.
For nine decades, they have broken each other’s bones, and they have smashed each other’s teeth, and they have irrigated their fields with the blood of the other,” says the St. Petersburg Times. As this year’s teams head into their rubber match, both Chicago’s and Green Bay’s hometown papers are reflecting on this storied rivalry and reviving the excitement of the teams’ 1941 postseason matchup. Here, a look back, through Chi-town and cheesehead eyes, at that winter day:
Nope…gotta go read it! Link at the beginning…it’s worth the few minutes.
And even though this is old and we KNOW that the Bears and Packers are going to play, this is still a good article from ESPN (linked here):
If all goes well, Soldier Field will be the epicenter of all humanity on Jan. 23.
Now, that is drama!
Anyway, I’ll keep an eye on my neighbor, make sure no one throws stuff at her house and whatnot. And for the record, I am a FOOTBALL fan. I love the game, the whole game, the teams, the players, the physicality of the whole sport and I am totally rooting for the BEARS because they are MY home team and I want US in the SuperBowl!!
But I can’t say that I hate the Packers. And they are really good this year. The Bears are too, but man, I just don’t know! For sure it will be a good game. No doubt everyone on the field will be playing the best football of their careers. Oh yea. It is that serious! But not too serious. Lots of jokes flying around. And just cause I like you, I will end this with a joke on behalf of Bears fans everywhere. It’s from the internet, where else?
A teacher tells her class she’s a Packers fan. The class agrees with her except one little girl. When asked who she likes the girl said the Bears, the teacher asked why and the girl said “because my mommy and daddy are fans”. The teacher replies “that’s no reason to like them, what if your dad was an idiot and your mom was a moron then what would you be?” The little girl replied back, “a Packers fan.”
Thank you and Goodnight!
GO BEARS! GO BEARS!
That should probably do it!
Three available serving sizes of denial! No matter how big you go, you still have to go back tomorrow! School starts again in about ten hours. Ten short hours and 125 more slow/fast days. 18 weeks. Start to finish. And I will be done. Finally. Finally.
Finally.
I will try to keep it light. Keep posting. Not stress. Hell, it’s only the whole rest of my life, so…
Off the computer and into bed. Last time I will ever have to do this much work to get two small letters added to the end of my name. It is thrilling beyond words. And I am ready. Let’s G-O !!!
Last one and I will move on
So this will be the last post for now unless something really weird happens. School is starting soon and my time is almost over for hanging out waiting for birds to fall to their deaths and marine life to wash up on shore. I had heard there were others and this is a good sum up for the 2011 slaughter of random species of animals. As usual….lazy…so here is the re-post from my internet friend Brian Merchant. And he included pictures! Which, thankfully, also copied! I haven’t checked everything, but I am hoping the links all link too. Thank you so much! As usual I added nothing to this and everything below the “enjoy” is his! End of the world! ENJOY!
Mass Animal Deaths Around the World: Dead Birds Fall from Sky, Millions of Fish & Crabs Wash Ashore
by Brian Merchant, Brooklyn, New York 
on 01. 6.11
Image: Inquistr
As you’re likely aware, there’s been a pretty bizarre spate of mass animal deaths reported around the world. First, it was the thousands of birds that fell from the sky in Arkansas on New Year’s Eve. Some 100,000 fish also washed up on the shores of a river 100 miles away. Birds fell from the sky in Louisiana and Kentucky, too. Two million fish washed up dead in Chesapeake Bay. 50 birds fell from the sky in Sweden. 100 tons of fish washed ashore in Brazil. 40,000 crabs were found dead in England. All of this carnage has left people around the world wondering the same thing: What the hell is going on?
Unfortunately, there’s no good answer. The explanations offered up so far run the gamut — from being dismissed as a series of unrelated, unfortunate coincidences to the suggestion that the deaths are a result of unusually cold weather to full-bore conspiracy theories that claim the US government is behind it all — but nothing conclusive has been determined. Here’s a closer look at the various incidents:
Thousands of Dead Birds Falling from the Sky
The AP reports that “Environmental service workers finished picking up the carcasses on Sunday of about 2,000 red-winged blackbirds that fell dead from the sky in a central Arkansas town.” The blame? Still open to speculation (though the loud-noise theory has gained traction):
Arkansas Game and Fish Commission ornithologist Karen Rowe said Saturday the birds showed physical trauma, and speculated that “the flock could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail.” The commission said that New Year’s Eve revelers shooting off fireworks could have startled the birds from their roost and caused them to die from stress.
Then, around 300 more dead birds fell from the sky in Louisiana, and still more were reported found dead in Kentucky. 50 more were found fallen from the sky in Sweden. And around 100 blackbirds dropped out of the sky in New Zealand as well.
2,000,000 Dead Fish Wash Up in Chesapeake
Here’s the Baltimore Sun: “An estimated 2 million fish have been reported dead from the Bay Bridge south to Tangier Sound, according to the Maryland Department of the Environment, which investigates fish kills. The dead fish are primarily adult spot, with some juvenile croakers … Large winter kills of spot have been documented at least twice before, the MDE spokeswoman said, with about 15 million dying in early 1976 and a smaller number in 1980.”
40,000 Crabs Wash Ashore in Kent
The Daily Mirror reports that “More than 40,000 Devil crabs – also known as Velvet swimming crabs – were found strewn along beaches in Thanet along with dead starfish, lobsters, sponges and anemones.” Scientists have blamed the death on colder than usual waters, which may have induced hypothermia in the sea life.
100 Tons of Fish Dead in Brazil
According to the Brazilian news outlet ParanaOnline, “A survey conducted by the Federation of Fishermen’s Colony of Paraná, Paranaguá on the coast of the state, indicates that at least 100 tons of fish (sardine, croaker and catfish) have turned up dead since last Thursday off the coast of Parana.” The fish have washed ashore, and no cause has been determined yet.
Fish kill in Brazil. Image via ParanaOnline
All in all, these incidents have led to a search for a unified theory that explains the phenomena — what could be killing all of these animals? The conspiracy theorists that point to the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, or HAARP (a government research project that investigates the ionosphere that’s been blamed for many a mysterious event) as the culprit certainly don’t have me convinced. But the patchwork, “great big coincidence” theory leaves something wanting as well.
Though the phenomenon may indeed be partly the result of self-fulfilling prophecy; the Washington Post points out that “when one news report about dead birds becomes big news, a few dead birds anywhere in the world becomes big news.” After all, sudden mass animal deaths do occur more often than most of us realize: “About 500 million to 1 billion birds are killed every year and mass deaths have been noted about 16 times in the past 20 years,” the PBS NewsHour reports. Even so, there’s plenty to chew on here, and you can’t blame the conspiracy theorists for tackling this one head on.
More on Mysterious Animal Deaths
Death Toll in Mysterious Mass Pilot Whale Beachings Hits 168 …
An Ocean of Plastic … In Bird’s Guts
Mystery : 500 Dead Penguins Wash Up on Brazilian Beaches
I blame the booze
And messed up cosmic bowling. And a million people all driving towards the mall. And a long line at the liquor store. And that first, delicious, vodka martini with garlic stuffed olives (pretty good, not as over powering or breath killing as you might think). And the movie Elf. And the bottle of wine that I bought the other day. And the other bottle of wine that I bought today. And the sore muscles that prevented me from getting up and moving in a timely fashion. And the Wizard of Oz, with commercials, so that I could struggle to my feet and exercise my way to the kitchen for more drinks in between.
But not actually exercise. Or not eat. The moment I said I would just drink and not eat, all I could think about was food. So we ate pretty much all the leftovers in the house. And then some other stuff too. Sorry Mason, we ate the cheese sticks. I’ll buy more this week.
And then it was so late. I could stand and walk enough but I was not doing, like, a workout. And now it’s morning. For the record I slept like crap. And I had a headache all night long. And I was really thirsty. And I had strange, weird dreams about working in a hospital. A giant, multi-level, spread out hospital that doesn’t exist in real life. I had to put eye drops in a long list of patients scattered everywhere, and measure their pupil dilation. But I couldn’t find the rooms. And the patients were listed categorically by disorder and it seemed most were psychiatric. It took me 15 minutes just to get near the hospital rooms. There was a huge, 2 level, narrow, oddly stepped staircase I had to go down (and back up) and my kids were following me and I was wearing my school uniform. AND I was drinking in my dream too! IN the hospital. All the other nurses and doctors were too. I don’t know what that means but it’s probably not good. In the end I could only find one person on the list and he refused.
Thank god I woke up. I’m drinking coffee now without anything in it, although I bought something for that yesterday too. I’m going to wait until later. During football, to start drinking again. And I must try to exercise even though just trying to cough hurts at this point. That’s the problem with irregular exercise. Those muscles hate stretching out after you let them sit for awhile. Then they punish you big time by not letting you move faster than sitting and not lifting more than a fork or a glass. Thank goodness I can type, right Amanda??
I suppose I better get up now and do something. In celebration of school being over I got myself some fake nails. But I am not skilled on managing alot of personal hygiene things yet. Takes practice and some different moves. Like, for instance, it took me half an hour to put in my contact lenses. It’s stupid. I don’t know how the fancy girls do it 24/7. But in a week or so, I’ll have naturalized myself to the whole concept and I’ll be fine. I let my daughter get some too, but her’s are probably all broken and chipped by now. 2 days would be a record. She likes to tap them on everything and pull at them all the time. Anyway…my point was that it takes longer to do less.
And I have a crazy fish to deal with. My son’s Oscar has taken to swimming around the tank in circles. Not like around the outer edges, literally swimming in fast circles like he’s a dog chasing his tail. We can’t figure out what the problem is. One site said water issues, one says nutrition, one said maybe he broke the heater and he’s getting electrocuted continuously. Well, there’s another fish in the tank and he seems fine so I doubt it’s that, but we unplugged the heater anyway. Still spinning. He also likes to attack the surface and throw water out. He just did it again. The other things are not easily fixable so I say just move him out. I think he’s too large for where he’s at and needs to be moved to the big tank. There are a variety of fish in it already and one giant Oscar. He used to be really aggressive, but he seems to be tamer now. I think it might be ok. It’s a pity though, because Mason’s fish is nice and smooth with no scars or damage and he’s probably going to get beat up a little bit if we switch him.
Anyway, these are the problems of a Sunday morning stall. Type long enough and something else will come up to do other than exercise. Like your mom calling you and asking when you planned on coming over. Hi mom! Thanks! Did you read all this? It’s funny huh?? So, since I didn’t make it clear when I called her earlier, and she won’t drive her scroungy butt to me, I guess I better really go get dressed and haul it out there! See? No exercise! Yay fat me!
I am posting a picture of the big Oscar that Mason took as companion to this fine piece of writing, except that its at the top, so you’ve already seen it. And I still have lots of Christmas pics I took from around my house when I was goofing around with the camera. And hopefully, I’ll have really old pics to post from when my dad was alive later too. Pretty exciting stuff. You do want to see those, I promise. In the meantime though, here’s a picture of Mason’s crazy fish:
He’s not as clear as he could be, but you get the idea. He’s about 8 inches long and 5 inches top fin to bottom. In a 36 gallon bow tank and looking mean, but we’ll see.
I gotta say…
I don’t know who the heck is still looking at this every day, but, thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my 15-week-jammed-up-school-crazy-going-no-time-to-post-anything heart! Someone is keeping me alive and on the charts and I thank you.
I literally have one more clinical and one more week of class to go this semester. One care plan. One evaluation sheet w/ goals. One Hesi test. One Lab Final and one final Final. Now that I have typed it…it seems like alot. But trust. It is not. Actually it is but that’s just because I have to study everything, all over again, and then answer even MORE questions. But then I’m done. Until January. One post in 15 weeks…not bad.
Here’s a quick update: School. Football. School. Football. I take the kids to bowling. I go to clinicals. I don’t play any games anymore on facebook, but I do check the site. I stay up way too late. And not for good stuff. I rebooted my Ipod but I am not in love with it anymore. I lost all my playlists and a few hundred songs when I re-loaded the back up discs. I haven’t exercised in weeks. Unless you count the few pushups I do every few days to make sure that I still can. Which I do. But I still fit in my small pants so I don’t care too much about the extra flab hanging over the top for now. I can hit the gym in about a week. School is busy but fun this time. Stressful but in a completely different way from last semester. And my license is calling. I can almost hear it now. I haven’t really been drinking either. Not even enough time for that. Or movies. Or pleasure books. Or mags. I have alot of gossip news to catch up on. My mags are from August…I know I should just throw them away…I’ll decide at Christmas about that. Anyway, I am having a drink now and it is good.
The two things for fun that I have still been doing is collecting change off the street (and keeping it in a cup) and playing my pocket poker game (the quest for the royal flush). Don’t I sound like FUN?? I will post the amount for the last few months in a few days maybe.
AND….wait for it……the quest is over!!
I GOT THE ROYAL FLUSH!!
Oh yeah! No kidding. I think it was clubs. I got it awhile ago but saved the pic for just this moment. I am a wild woman! Do not mess with me and my mad fake poker points skillz! The back of the game says I get 2500 points for the royal flush but I got 5000! What?? I know! It was an exciting day! And just when I did not think it could ever happen again….IT DID!!
TWO Royal Flushes! This was a hearts set. Another 5000. Oh yeah…I’m going for the 10,000. I am unstoppable.
I need to go eat dinner and study something. Thanks for hanging again with me thru the weeks of drought! I really do appreciate your time! I’ll have more later! Pictures are below.
The first one. And that was pretty exciting.
Ugh! Blurry! But you can see it! Another 5000.
That was the high score but I am going for more points. I think I am over 7100 now. Yes I know. Sad life. That’s what the vodka is for. See ya!
Happy New Year!!!
GET UP!! Let’s go! Back to school! The first day back for me, one more week for the kids (school construction problems delayed their opening–good for them now, bad for them in June). Stay tuned for 16 weeks of fun and 16 weeks of DONE!! I cannot wait! So here we go….
Meanwhile, in other, non-money-costing news, I can ride a motorcycle!
This is the bike they let me ride for the program! This pic is from the Honda image bank so thank you very much…please let me keep it! I was so excited, nervous, sweaty, etc, etc, that I never even thought to take a picture of the actual bike I was riding! I have to say I felt very cool, and grateful that I had a bike that looks and feels real “motorcycle-y”. I know that’s not a word, but the guys were riding dirt bike type motorcycles because of their height. I had a bigger type bike, that looks more like what you see on the street. And as a bonus, I was able to fully plant my feet on the ground. I was comfortable and in a good position on the bike so I didn’t feel like I was struggling. Thank you Honda!!
And even bigger thank you to the MSF, Motorcycle Safety Foundation: www.msf-usa.org
And the State of Illinois Motorcycle Rider Program: www.mrp.illinois.edu
I was literally starting from scratch. The BF heard about the classes from another one of his friends who was taking it, so we signed up too! (It cost $20 dollars but you can get it refunded to you at the end of the course if you choose. Or you can donate it to the program to keep up the quality. That money is well worth it!)
I have never operated a motorcycle in my life. I didn’t even really know how they worked. That may seem stupid to some, but I was a passenger, like a billion years ago, and that was only for a short time. Life ya know? I will admit, because everyone seems to think it’s funny and I can laugh at myself, I did not even know that the throttle rolls IN. Dumb huh? Everytime people fake ride a motorcycle they turn the throttle right? Well, I thought it was OUT, like, vroom vroom, roll your hand forward. HA! Nope, It’s in, towards your body. Luckily, that was the only really scatterbrain thing I didn’t know. They asked at the beginning, who knew how already and who has NEVER ridden. Three (including the BF, knew) nine of us did not. I have been kind of going over this in previous posts when that damn tree hasn’t interrupted me, so I won’t rehash too much. But I will say, we started with twelve and ended with eight. Some people make it look so easy and I admire them. It is “easy” to learn how. It’s not easy to control and steer and turn. That takes practice. But the class moves fast. 4 days, about 20 hours, written test AND driving test. If you can complete the program and pass the tests you get your “M” (That’s the letter they put on yer license to say you can drive a motorcycle!)
Did I pass??? I was nervous! Once you complete the exercise portion the instructors are no longer trainers but representatives of the DMV. Pass the test, get the M. And…we had to take our written test AFTER the riding part because of a participant hold-out. (Had to be unanimous, one gal didn’t want to take it on Sat., and then she ended up leaving anyway, but it was too late, we had to wait until Sunday) You don’t get to know if you passed the drive part until after the written part. So we all trudged in and took our test and waited.
All eight of us PASSED!! YAY!! The BF and I now have our licenses!! It was actually very exciting! And a relief! The nerves were pretty high. It’s so weird, but I am so glad I did this and was able to complete it!
But, as the instructors pointed out: “You are all now all officially licensed and certified parking lot motorcycle operators! Keep that in mind when you actually hit the road.” Good point. We have been on a range, with adult supervision. Probably not quite the same once we get out onto the streets.
Since I don’t actually own a motorcycle, it is kind of hard to practice these new skills, but if we can find a good deal on a small bike, then we are going to try and buy it. I never realized that motorcycles can be kind of expensive, even used and smaller ones. The BF is looking everyday! It is kind of addicting and I see why people love it so much. I am mostly interested in skill improvement right now until I can ride pretty confidently. Besides winter is on its way in the Midwest and that cuts my season short, plus with school starting I’m not sure falling off a motorcycle in the street is a good idea. Just kidding…I never dropped the bike or even had trouble holding it up. When you don’t know, balance and weight is critical, and I wasn’t sure if I could do it, but it was ok. Better than I thought it would be.
Anyway…I could go on and on, but I won’t. (That’s for my sissy. Just seeing if you are paying attention, especially since you already heard my story on the phone and sounded so thrilled…yeah, I could tell. You were un-interested. But as you know, I don’t care. I’ll just talk anyway! haha)
If you already have a license, good for you! If you don’t and you want one or you want to learn and all that good stuff, I highly recommend the program. It’s time out of your life for sure, you have to do the work and give a little bit, but it really is the best way to learn in my opinion. I even got a cool t-shirt!
And a bumper sticker!! Awe…..some……!!!
4 hours on a Friday afternoon
(To take down a tree. Four hours on a Tuesday just to write about it. Sheesh.)
Programming note: Sorry it took so long to get this up. I am sure all 15 of you have been waiting and wondering, “where the hell is her tree story??” Well, I’ve kind of been busy with extra things I decided to pile on right at the end of my summer. Like motorcycling, school obsessing, and complete body overhauling. I can sum all that up later. But here’s the gripping tale, in it’s entirety and original text with fabulous pictures. Ready, set, go:
Who needs Yoga X when you can stand outside and sweat from heat and stress. I didn’t do jack shit except be nervous about the tree man, he’s awesome! His name is Ken and me and the neighbors all agree that he’s our hero! He makes it look waaaay too easy. That’s him in the tree.
Let me re-cap our situation: Tree tipped onto the house.
Cut cut cut, with a handsaw. It’s all we could do last Sunday.
It was about 6 inches off the roof and then resting back on it by Monday morning. We bought a chainsaw and tried to do it ourselves. HA. HA. HA.
The roof is steeper and the branch is higher off the roof than I anticipated so…I was no help. We needed a professional.
That’s from the front. Just thought I’d throw it in there for perspective. The tree is still mostly intact. And here’s just one more picture of the crack that cost me all my money. Damn trees.
And this is Friday. It was about 3 o’clock when he started. About 95° with little breeze and the sun was beating down and the branches were getting thinner and thinner. We were hot on the ground. I was standing, obviously, taking pictures, and Ken was in the tree and his 2 friends were providing the muscle and assistance to get each piece from the sky to the ground. I really have to say thanks to them too, because without them it would not have been possible to do anything. So this pic is already after he took off the one over the house. He basically hopped onto the roof and chainsawed off a couple of feet that he could reach by hand, then climbed the tree, hung out over the roof, tied it off and chopped it down in bite size chunks. There is NO WAY we would have EVER been able to do even that. The heat must have gotten to us because we were crazy for thinking it. Trees are big and scary tall! After he scaled back up the main trunk he chopped chopped off the bothersome “smaller” limbs. You can see some of them jutting off the one limb he is LAYING on.
That’s my second favorite picture. Yeah. Look close. Do you see a blue line? No? Well it’s there, and it’s the only thing holding him to the tree besides his feet on the branch with the spikey hold in his boots. But you can only reach so far over before you have to basically lay across the limb, stretch it out, grab the chainsaw that hanging off a loop on your pants and start, wield and cut with ONE hand. Zip and done. That’s what it looks like from my perspective. He was like a squirrel just moving from branch to branch and making cuts like he was painting a big picture. I took so many pictures with the camera so I hope he doesn’t mind, but it was pretty exciting. Once you get comfortable with the man in the trees and everyone is kind of gelled and working together, it was really moving along. Ken also brought his truck and chipper rig that was parked in front of the house. I got pics of that too. It’s a scary, dangerous, machine. And like my neighbor said, this tree process draws people to the site like a car accident. But they mostly slow down and keep moving.
Well that’s the top. And this is from the side. Every time he cut one branch going up it looked like 2 more were right behind. One over the driveway, one over the house, one hanging over the yard…OH! there’s another one straight up. They’re all loose looking and flappy. But he just keeps climbing. Climbing and cutting. Dropping them, every single one, perfectly in between our houses. Precision targeting. Not one of the limbs touched the house or the wires or the fence or even the gutters. It’s an art form.
That’s from the front because you can see how high he really is. I thought it was an interesting view that you would like too. The tree is, was, tall. Tapered. Flimsy to me. I’m not crawling up there. Ken is in the middle of the picture. In the tree. Directly above the peak of the house. Here’s another look.
Look at all that blue sky! This is the pan out on my fav shot of the day. The one below these words. Ken finished with all the dangling limbs, all the ones that were kind of sticking out in all directions. Then he’s getting ready to drop the final top piece and prepare to work his way down. He’s just standing up there in the tree. Looking so casual. Literally on one leg, one boot spike technically, with the other one crossed over like he’s just chilling at the bar. You can’t beat this kind of cool. He was actually tying ropes and sweating like crazy, but you would never know it from his relaxed posture. (And, just from an arty viewpoint, I think that the colors of the sky and his clothes and safety gear, boots, not to mention the chainsaw, really bring the whole picture together).
OK, let me speed things up. He’s on the way down now. Shimmy, rope, tie off, ready, cut, hang, drop, untie, repeat.
So, as far as I can tell: Go up. Cut everything in your path. Then once you are at the tippy top, start cutting above you and go back down. Makes sense when you see a professional do it. This might be kind of boring to see I guess, but if you’ve had something like a giant, 50 year old tree taken down piece by heavy piece, it’s overly interesting and strangely satisfying. The worry is pretty much gone for his safety because he obviously knows what he’s doing (been doing it for over 20 years) and he makes tree “walking” look like he’s walking around the yard. Then you forget (not really) that he’s up there and then he’s done. Back on the ground and cutting the last huge piece.
Oooh! You can see some chips flying! That final piece was the size of a love-seat.
This is another picture of the last piece with real chainsaw action, just because. If I could carve wood I would have made it into a sofa seat. We wouldn’t have been able to move it but that’s besides the point. We could have rolled it. How nice it would be to sit in our tree chair on a warm summer night and look up at our tree trunk. No that’s ok. Cut it up please! Thank you. Our chainsaw cannot handle the diameter, which I measured just for you. 33 inches at it’s widest point. Here’s the pic:
Looks good and smells good too. It has a weird open-guts-tree smell. Fresh like in the rain but woodsy and sandy and barky all at the same time. That description doesn’t exactly sound enticing but it’s not bad. We’re all out there smelling the tree. Intervention!
So now we can really move fast with the cleanup process. This is the pile of logs that were laying around.
These are all the branches. I tried to get a good view with lots of debris so you could get a feel for what four hours of tree cutting can really get you.
I am so grateful that the guys cleaned up almost everything. What we had left was alot. Plus, Ken wanted to use the new chipper. And in my need to help and start moving the big backyard pieces to the tree holding area we have now, I sustained my first real working injury. Crap. I was scared too. Right after I picked up one of the bigger pieces, which I lift stuff all the time so I didn’t even think about it, my right middle finger felt immediately numb and fat. It was black and blue and looked seriously pinched and just injured. It was hot and painful, and looked really bad. I’ll admit I got a bit worried. And of course the BF, who is always warning me not to do stupid shit because I don’t have the best insurance, walks up at that moment. I iced it and hoped for the best. And I stopped doing anything. The nurse next door took a look and said it will prob turn a nice black and blue color, but since my circulation was fine, I should just ice and rest it. Man, this forty year old body is killing me! It’s been some days now and it is ok. KNOCK ON WOOD. It never turned real nasty and it seems to have gone back to mostly normal. It’s a weird browny color but I can use it so I’m not complaining. I was even able to finish my motorcycle class using my bum hand. Right hand throttle ya know! FUN! No hand pictures though…they would have been good right after but I never even thought of it! Anyway, this is the chipper below.
Notice the chips flying out the chute end. Nasty going in. Shreds coming out. Makes that movie Fargo seem extra creepy when you have a wood chipper sitting right in front of your house and you see what it can do to tree limbs that are as big as a human leg. Here’s a few more pics from a different angle.
I like that picture because it kind of shows the effort it takes to heave those branches in. Throw and let go. You do not want to be holding onto the branch when the blades grab it. It sucks it in so fast that even standing there watching it over and over you can’t believe it’s so quick. One more for good luck.
I like this one because you can see inside the truck. It was empty when we started. And it’s not nearly full when we were done. Well, when they were done. I was pretty far away actually. Walking around taking pictures. This was before my finger got a boo boo.
And finally, the finished product! Now I have two trees with one trunk, going straight up, looking like they are doing a booty bump. I was joking around that with my luck there will be a terrible lightning storm that night that will hit the first one and take out the second one in a domino effect. Money well spent.
This is post cleanup. The BF and the boy chainsawed what we had left and stacked it all in the holding pile. I cleaned up the small stuff.
And here we are. Right back to where we started from at the beginning of summer. It’s like gaining weight. All plus more. It is obviously my destiny to be the keeper of the trees. Or at least their parts.
That’s everything nicely stacked. Here’s an individual pic of the big logs just cause I like the way they look. All that used to be in the air. Isn’t that amazing?!? I know. It’s been a long day and the kids want to go out and fish for a little while. They have been very understanding in my need to share with my fans.
If anyone needs any wood?? Camping? Fireplace? Carving? Just to have a piece of the story? It’s always here. And anytime I dare to try and get rid of it all, nature provides me with more! It’s the gift that keeps on giving. I was just thinking that even if I had no trees in the yard, cut to the ground, I bet branches from other areas would start showing up, like from the wind. Or tornados would bring them right to me. Well, that’s hopefully too crazy. Incidentally, it’s been dry as a bone around here all last week. Looked like rain. They said it might. Never did. About one hour after Ken was done and cleaned up and everything was in for the night, it stormed. There was thunder. There was lightning. The wind blew. The rain fell. The earth was clean. And it hasn’t rained again since. I’m not trying to say anything in particular. It just seems strange.
This is the last picture. My newly shorn tree posing for the camera. I should make it the first cause it’s so pretty. This is also the end of the story. Thanks for hanging all the way through. Later.
Friday the 13th
That was a fast week. We’ve been baking out here in the Midwest for the last few. I’m breaking on the P90x for today. I was up too late with the kids watching meteors. Shooting stars all over the sky. We were out at about 2:30 a.m. and seeing them pretty regularly. So fast. It was clear and dark, even with the other house lights around. It’s worth it to stay up because there’s just so much beyond our little world and the kids need to see for themselves. It’s hard to understand the vastness of space from books and tv until you see a flash and streak of light across the sky and know that we are in the middle of a moving universe.
But I feel loopy enough. I caught back up with my days. 31 for Core and 32 for Kenpo. I was feeling worn out and lumpy and had to push play and push through. I am thisclose to real, off-the-knee pushups. That Core dvd is killer. I don’t know if it’s because of the recovery week that my arm muscles feel stronger or because they just are. Either way, I was feeling good. Then I Kenpo’d in some tight running pants and my belly was looking kind of flabby. I could let it all hang or suck it in whenever I’m standing. Sometimes you just want to push it out and let it go! That’s when I knew I had to take the pics again. So I did. You really need to see the progress from Day 0 to Day 30 to Day 60 to Day90. I was skeptical, as usual, because I have no intention of ever letting anyone see these pictures. I hate looking at them. But I did and I do see some changes. Subtle. A little less hang here, a little more indent there. An actual horizontal dividing line on my upper arm from the muscle area and the fat area. I’m hoping for bone show but I’m not there yet. At least you can see that there is something underneath all that skin besides fat and cellulite! Yay!
But the pictures were not enough to make me put the Yoga in and get sweaty. I wanted to take a nice long shower and get dressed. I had alot of house things to do and school stuff to finish. Speaking of, I have all my books now for fall! Very exciting. After yesterdays workout I took the kids for the final school shopping blitz. Supplies, clothes, books (mine), and backpacks! Done done done. I have heard over the years that kids get more expensive as they get older but I didn’t believe that either. Well, it’s true. It’s not crazy expensive, but it’s not dollar-store-bargain-bin.
Well I just got word my tree is about to come down in 45 minutes so I have to go get some money to pay the people. And I have to read that damn motorcycle book again and answer the back questions. I have a test to take tomorrow if I want to get my license. Step 1 of 2. Then I have to pass the drive test. Nail bites!
Alright enough. I really have to go. I’m going to make myself sick worrying all over again. I should lay off the coffee. I think it’s giving me the shakes. I’ll be back. With pics. Later.
just shy of pretty 