After the Fall

Having been sent home from work at noon to avoid getting caught in the freezing rain, or the frozen rain, Bill and I have been having a quiet afternoon. I was sitting in the living room reading, when I heard something in foyer behind me that sounded like a plastic garment bag slipping to the floor. I thought, "Hmm, that's odd. I thought Bill was in the shower (on the other side of the house). I called his name, and he didn't answer, so I figured he must really be showering. Since I didn't hear anything else, I went back to my book. 

A while later, he came through the living room on the way to the bedroom from the bathroom, and when he got to foyer he said, "Have you looked out the front door lately? You should go look." I felt like he was really punishing me by making me get up, and look, but being a sweet, obedient wife, I did get up. When I got to front door, I saw this.

When we moved here, this ornamental plum was beautiful--pinkish-white blossoms in the spring, and dark purple leaves in the summer and fall. It had a beautiful shape, and was perfect for climbing--but not by me. There was another one like it in the back yard which was visible from the window when I was washing dishes. It was the perfect shade tree for parents watching kids in the pool. It's the one with the bird's nest here Unfortunately, a few years ago both of them started dying from some sort of blight. The one in the back yard lost about three fifths of itself in a storm a few days after I took that picture. And now this. It came up right by the roots. I was wondering how we were going to get rid of the stump when we cut the tree down. Now we don't have to worry. We'll have a nice hole for a new tree. My grandson was hoping that we would have a real fire when he was here last weekend, but it was too wet. The next dry week, he'll get to see quite a fire.

It's a good thing it didn't fall in the other direction. Bill's truck is right next to my car, so it would have fallen on them both. I don't think would have done much beyond scratching the hoods, but it would have been a pain to get out from under.

I actually had something else planned to write about today, but I couldn't pass up this breaking news. Maybe tomorrow.

AMDG