66. Palms Away!

Well, there was a little action in the canyon this morning.  We used to have two 100 foot palm trees on the far side of our driveway.  We had mentioned to our landlady last winter that they really get to swinging in wind storms and it was a little disconcerting sometimes.  She didn't say much except that it would probably cost a lot to have them removed.  We agreed and didn't give it any more thought.  Yesterday she announced that a crew was coming this morning to take them down.  

Wow!  What a show that was!  The precision with which those two men felled those monstrous palms was quite a sight to behold.  I'm glad we were here to watch.  It was a memorable experience.  They tied a cable from their work truck about thirty feet up the palm, anchored it at a right angle from the truck and put tension on it away from houses, etc.  They put the first v cut on the side facing the direction they wanted the palm to fall.  A little more tension added and then a v cut on the opposite side.  A little more tension and a cracking sound and boom!  It was over!  Right between all the oak trees, perfectly executed!  Amazing!  We half way expected critters to come flying out, but not one.  The view is much nicer and there will be no more dried palm fronds to deal with!  I have to admit we will both rest a little easier when the winter storms come through the canyon.  I guess I have never given much thought to the life of a tree trimmer.  A new respect was born this morning, I can assure you.

Palm trees evoke memories of Bob's paternal grandparents though.  When Bob's folks decided to move to California from Dallas it broke Bob's heart and he has truly never gotten over it.  He would take the bus in the summer time and spend several weeks there, but his parents never took a vacation, let alone go back to Dallas.  When Bob's grandparents retired they would come and visit for a couple of months.  They were perfectly delightful people, the kind of folks you really want to sit down with and visit.  I adored them.  Everyone called Cotton's daddy, Doc.  It was in reference to a kindly retarded gentleman who lived down the street when Bob's dad was growing up.  I doubt most people ever knew him as anything else.

When Bob and I were in high school the rage was to set palm trees on fire around Halloween.  They shoot up like a rocket because the fronds become tinder dry before falling off.  Doc would stand and look at dry palm trees and say "Shoo-ee, would I love to set just one on fire, Bobby.  Just one."  This coming from the man who loved to smack giant wasp-nests and run like hell, just for the fun of it;  that adrenalin rush that comes from doing something really stupid while you pray like mad that you come out un-scathed.  It must be a male thing, because all of that escapes me.  But then I was pumped full of the threats of "what would the neighbors think,"  plus the thought of my mother's "angry eyebrows!"  That was enough to keep me on the straight and narrow, until I married Bob, of course.  My parents were sure that each and every out of the ordinary thing I ever did stemmed from Bob's influence.  In my estimation, they sure missed an awfully lot of fun!  Life is too short...especially from this end of it, so I vote for fun.  I'm not going to try to out run a swarm of angry wasps, but if I think about it I'm sure I'll come up with something.