TREE TOPPING. I hope they pay well

Well, yes this one is a bit bigger than the one in my neighbor"s yard

I love watching other people work.  The harder or the more dangerous it is, the more I love it. If I ask myself “how much would they have to pay me to do that?”, and the answer is “there isn’t that much money in the world”, then I can’t stop watching.

Well, I have just wasted an afternoon watching work I might have done at age 20 – for maybe $200/hr.  The work could be called tree-topper, I guess.  I watched all afternoon as a guy swinging from ropes and lugging a chain saw  reduced most of a Douglas fir – at least 90 ft. tall – to sawdust (with the aid of his partner on the ground, operating the chipper.)  It was such a bravura performance that I applauded long and vigorously when he finally descended.  He gave me a shy smile in return.

Linda and I bought this place in 1984, I think it was.  At that time we had a sweeping view in all directions but south.  Thus at that time we could see most of Bellingham Bay and the southern B.C. Coast Range from our back deck.  On 4^th of July we could watch the fireworks from our hot tub.  But, gradually, inexorably, nature intervened.

Our neighbor two doors down to the south had a Dough fir – a little squirt, but as Doug firs will it grew to impressive dimensions.  The neighbor in question is an attorney, so I hesitated to sue him for deprivation of view.  Instead, I prayed for a windstorm intense enough to blow the damned tree down, or at least rip off most of its branches.  No such luck; the tree prospered, and my view evaporated.  Nowadays to watch the fireworks you have to set up a chair on the sidewalk in front of the house.

Why are they removing the tree?  No clue.  Maybe they have realized that, if it DID blow over it would take out half the neighborhood.

And so, I get my view back.  There is irony here, however.  As many of you know, I am down-sizing, and 1811 4^th St. soon will be sold.  I hope the new owners appreciate the view.