A (NEAR) MISS IS A GOOD AS MILE

It started in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. I went stumping through to check the cat food on the porch. “It’s snowing, yawn, food ok. Zzzzzzzz” Five thirty plus and the neighbor’s diesel pickup fires up and I surface long enough to notice two things. It was a lot whiter in the back yard than it was when I went to bed and the snowflakes were big enough to see them through the window.

And I’m very nearsighted and I DO not wear my glasses to bed. If I can see snowflakes without my glasses they have to be big. Up before seven. At that point there were a good four inches or so on the ground and it was still coming down as if it were January, not the first day of spring. Big, fat, wet flakes coming down hard. Checked the calendar on the computer just in case we missed something. Yup. It was still the first day of spring. Riiiiiiiight.

A couple of hours later there was about six inches on the ground but it had slowed down a lot and I was trying to figure out three things. One, where was Amber? Turns out she was topping off on the porch complete with the patented feline “you’re the human, fix this,” look. Two, how much seed is left in the feeders? Turned out there was more than enough. All the sensible squirrels wrapped themselves in their tails and told the world to go take a running jump at itself. Most of the birds were hanging out in one of two places. The neighbor's holly tree or our rhodie at the corner of the porch. Three, how far into the dogwood would the handle of the shop broom reach? We had help with that from a neighbor. He cleans pools and has tool with an extendable handle that did the job very nicely.

In the meantime, it was here a crack, there a crack everywhere a crack, crack as the local trees tried to cope with the load and failed. Then there was a kerthump whump in the back of the house. Checked upstairs. Ceiling ok. Checked through the back windows. Very LARGE, very HORIZONTAL tree now inhabiting the back yard. From line to line and then some. We lucked out. It took out some gutters and a piece of the south side neighbor’s fence. And probably scared the crap out of Amber. Didn’t see her until the next morning. It may not be the softest bed in the neighborhood but the back deck (enclosed) covers some nice dry ground and she has a very long, thick coat. I think she wrapped herself in that fluffy tail and told the world where to go. Thursday morning I got a double dose of “fix this, damn it.” Talk about your laser beams for eyes.

About four hours into the lemonade almost pity party it was “ wait a minute I just paid for the homeowners insurance I wonder if…..” We are and somebody is scheduled to start dealing with the PITA (pain in the ass) tree in the back. Trouble is the neighbors have six more that look just like it. Old, gnarled and full of ivy. We’ll check with public works to see what the city’s policy is on this. It’s just a matter of time before one of those comes down on a house. And it’s probably too much to hope that it’ll come down on the semi neglected rental next door instead one of the rest of us. You know, the responsible property owners who realize that trees have life spans too. Dad took care of OUR trees a long time ago and we keep the back of the lot pretty well cleared.

Oh well, the seriously out of season snow is now a memory. The squished daffodils are standing tall again. It could have been a lot worse.