Wednesday, February 03, 2010

hat racks

Some combination of my alarm clock and the chainsaws next door woke me up around the time I needed to be up, while an insufferable need to urinate finally dragged me to remove myself from lying down with the blanket pulled up to my chin.

The neighbors lost a big limb on their nearly/mostly dead tree recently, and they've decided today was the day to get rid of the whole thing. We also lost a tree recently but never did lose a branch really until the whole tree and all the branches fell across the driveway.

One thing these trees shared was that they'd both been topped at some point in the past. If you aren't aware, topping a tree involves removing everything from the tree above a certain point. You can read about it HERE.

I can't say that I noticed so many trees treated in this way in other places I've lived, but it's all too common in my little town. And I'd never considered it too much, but I've grown to hate the sight of them, and I decided long ago that it can't possibly be healthy. Now, according to the views expressed in the link above I have some justification for my ire.

These two yards should have nice healthy trees still growing. One of those two trees should be in this yard, shading the big windows in the front when the summer sun sets in such a way as to shine right in, making this part of the house a greenhouse and making the ac work that much harder. I don't plan to be here by that point in the year, but it's always going to be someone's problem.

I don't know the reason either of these trees were topped. It isn't a question of power lines. It shouldn't have been a question of safety.

I just don't get it.