When I got back from the beach walk where I froze as Pepper smelled every bush and tree along the way, I went inside, put a pot of water on to heat, gave each dog a treat and took Daisy outside to play ball in the front yard. After I’d thrown the first ball, I glanced to the front corner of the yard where the green can was, and I saw a huge limb broken into pieces on the ground.
Wait! What?
There was a tree trimmer next door. I’d seen him pull up when I left for the walk. The neighbors had called me a month before about trimming my tree limb near their electrical wires. I gave them permission to do so. They asked me to pay for it. I told them no. They insisted and threatened to call the city. I said fine, call the city. Long story short, now they know it’s their cost (since it’s over the property line), not mine.
I ran over to the tree trimmer’s truck and took a photo of the company name and phone number. Then I saw the trimmer guy emerge from the neighbor’s back yard.
“Hey, I need to talk to you!” I yelled.
He walked over, and I showed him the nine-inch-in-diameter limb that had broken into several pieces and pointed out the cut end.
After a bit of discussion, he admitted that he had trimmed the limb but it was dead, and I admitted that the limb was going to eventually come down anyway.
Then I played the old lady card and told him I couldn’t lift those heavy pieces (one was four feet long) and asked him to throw them over the front fence for me. He agreed to do so.
“My handy woman has a chain saw,” I said. “She can cut them up for me.”
He offered to cut them up with his chain saw.
“For free?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said.
“Thank you so much,” I said. “I’m lucky I wasn’t raking when it fell.”
“You have lots of dead limbs,” he said.
Funny, the tree was trimmed in 2018 for $3400.00. The limbs died in the last three years.
I was at the beach with the dog when the limb fell. I don’t know if it was immediately after the tree guy cut the end hanging over the fence or if it fell five or ten minutes later. At any rate, it’s down on the ground now, where it can’t kill me.
Guess what? It’s a windy day. I’m not going to rake anywhere near that flipping monster of a tree.
Thanks, Pepper, for being a pill and smelling every tree and bush on our beach walk today. You gave the tree limb time to fall without me under it, where I would’ve been raking up the pine needles. Or where I would’ve been sending Daisy to retrieve the ball.
Guardian angel or just good timing?
Anyway, the green can is officially full.
FIRST DATE, WORST DATE EVER! 