Pictoral Perspective

[neadods]

Adding insult to injury, this morning I woke up to find out that one of the cats had horked up all over my bedspread. Which will tend to show stains. (I don't know why that's listed as new; the local Ikea's had it for months now.) Then I spent three hours at work pretty much smacking the keyboard and thinking "Waaaaaaaant braaaaaaaiiiiiiinnnnn" before I gave up and came home. One more thing going off and I'm going to buy a pickup and a dog, because I'm obviously living the lyrics to a country song.

Anyway! For y'all who don't live just down the road from me like redpanda13, a few pictures to give perspective.

Start here:


That bookshelf to the left? To the left of that is a window, through which I took this picture of the Lydia Pinkham bottle:


The tree trunk in the middle? The one it looks like my fingertips are just brushing? Is that tree. That's how close it struck.

I've pulled the shards out of the wet grass and put them on the pavement to dry. The tip of one was buried 3 inches deep in the ground.


I'm still at the point where I just go look at the tree and say "daaaaaaaaaamn" at the damage.






Thanks to everyone, I've got 8 recommendations for tree people. I'm going to start calling around soon.

Also, as I wended my way home early, I passed the local clinic. It's 40 Days of non-stop protests Life, so even though it's closed right now there were 7 protesters, signs including the Babies Die Here and a huge cross with "abortion" written on it. I've been feeling quite guilty about being "off" for 7 weeks, so I've signed up for a stint tomorrow. I'm expecting it to be physically & emotionally draining, so afterwards, I've pretty much promised myself that all I need to "do" for the rest of the day is eat onion dip and finish reading "Trust Me, I'm a Jr. Doctor" until it's time to geek (Cry? Rant? Squee? I don't know yet) about Doctor Who.

Comments

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

yeah, i was about to say - that tree is dead. it just doesn't know it yet.

we had a big tree (florida oak, at least 35 feet tall, 3-4 ft diameter) hit by lightning in the forest behind my house in 1977. By 1979 it was still standing but with no leaves, and the streak down the strike point still stuck out...

...but by the time we returned to that house years later, the whole tree was down and decaying into sawdust. but it fell over, on its own time. if anywhere other than a forest, somebody would have heard (or at least, heard an insurance bill go up...), but out in the woods nobody noticed.

so yeah, get that thing out of there because it is dead and it will collapse at some point in the next year or to, given its smaller size.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

that tree is dead. it just doesn't know it yet.

I keep thinking that it's like a guillotined body with the heart still pumping. Which probably says a lot about my mind.

so yeah, get that thing out of there because it is dead

Especially as it stands a 3/4 chance of hitting something important; there's only one direction it can fall and not hit houses or my garage. I've called all 8 landscapers - my intent is to have it down by Christmas if it's not too expensive.

[elasg.livejournal.com]

Um... I do have some expertise in this field.

It's very unlikely the tree is dead. It may have been structurally compromised, I can't tell from the picture, but lightning doesn't usually kill a tree. With the way a tree is designed, that kind of damage isn't really going to do it a lot of damage (at least not biologically).

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Well... Some of my calls are out to arborists, who I expect to say if they think they can save it.

However, with the way we get hurricanes these days and the liklihood of crushing something really expensive, I'm inclined to be final.

[elasg.livejournal.com]

An arborist is the way to go - that should give you the best information - I was just commenting because a single lightning strike isn't likely to kill a tree.

[redpanda13.livejournal.com]

It's not dead-- that would be if it were girdled, with the bark off all the way around the trunk. But it does look compromised, and I'd worry about the next real big windstorm, given the damage it would do to your house or the neighbors' if it, or a big chunk of it, came down.

But then I'm the one who had a tree fall on my head to the tune of 60 stitches, so I'm a but twitchy.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I don't want that to ever happen to anyone, I'm still sorry it happened to you.

[redpanda13.livejournal.com]

That was supposed to be "a BIT twitchy". Impact was 3 1/2 years ago and I'm still a bit yippity....