September 7, 1991

I start in on my chores after JoAnna's delicious biscuit and sausage gravy breakfast.  First item on the list:  a reorganization of the shed's interior.  Andy's my little helper for awhile.  By the time I'm done, it looks as though I've doubled the storage space.  Otherwise it's too hot to tackle any more big projects.  Yard work is out of the question.  The ground is hard as cement.

I drink a couple of martinis after taking a shower, some wine with dinner, so I'm fairly well lubed by the time JoAnna and I leave for a movie.  Dead Again, an enjoyable, very stylishly done thriller. Toward the the movie, JoAnna has her hands in front of her face.

We spend a couple of hours at John's Open House party, playing cards and drinking with Dave, Erin, and Mary.  I drove home squinting through my own personal haze.

Limb by Limb, a Dying Silver Maple is Reduced to Nothing

And by Saturday......

Making lemonade out of lemons.

The CRACK Heard 'Round the Neighborhood

Thursday morning, August 9, moments after a deafening CR-AAAAAACK shattered the neighborhood calm.

The branches of the fallen limb obscure Alex and Julie's back yard.

At this point, butterflies flapping violently in my stomach, I feared that one of the other mighty limbs would give way.

This section of the back yard will soon be dramatically transformed.  Rot is visible in the base of the trunk.

The force of the landing doesn't obliterate the shed, but it does blow off half of its south wall.

Had one of the other limbs fallen, the roof of the living room/garage section of the house would have been crushed.  Who knows what would have happened to me.  I was sitting at the computer in the family room at the time.

After the contents of the shed were cleared out by the tree service employees.

April 6, 1991

An early taste of summer.  The temperature reaches 85, a record for the day.  I spend the day doing chores:  my semi-annual window cleaning ritual, a tidying up of the garden shed interior, but no landscaping due to JoAnna's veto of the necessary expenditure to begin the project.  I quickly get over my disappointment, realizing that there are plenty of weekends ahead for me for these activities.  We cook out.  Ribs and chicken.   The grill fires up right away but I have some trouble controlling the heat.  "Blackened" is not the descriptive term I had in mind for my efforts.