This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
Birthday Party Tree
May
17
2010
We had a birthday party the other weekend. It was a surprise party, so we were to arrive at a certain time. Leaving the house at a certain time is never easy with young kids, but we actually did it this time.
But we almost didn’t make it to the party.
We were last in a line of cars on the road. About a mile and a half from our house, three things happened at once:
- I saw a car, one that was several cars in front of us, swerve violently off the road, crossing through the oncoming lane to do so;
- I heard my wife yelling something (I forget what at this point, probably “look out!“); and
- I saw a tree falling across the road.
“Get your phone!” I said to my wife. She called 911, but it went to a “please hold” message so she hung up. We noticed other people on their phones as well, so we figured someone would get through.
We stopped about 50 yards back. I saw that the tree had broken apart somewhat, the traffic was accumulating in both directions, and since it had just happened emergency crews might be a while in coming. So I hopped out of the van, leaving the family behind, and walked past the other cars on my way to the tree. Some of the other people were also walking toward the tree.
For some reason, I like clearing fallen trees off roads. There were a few guys and one gal, and we just started picking up the medium-size branches/logs/debris and throwing them to the side of the road. The tree had been growing in a swampy-type area, along with other trees, so it didn’t really matter where we threw the wood as long as it was off the road.
It was a nice sense of community – people joining together to accomplish some good. We didn’t greet each other or even get names – we just started clearing.
I grabbed the first log I found and lifted one end. Or at least I tried to lift. The wood was so rotten that it just crumbled apart.
The trunk didn’t fully break apart, so it was lying across the road. It was heavy, but we had enough people that we could have moved it. Before we could do that, someone pulled up in a truck and offered the use of his truck and chains to pull the tree away. So, while we continued with the scattered branches, he cleared the main section of the tree off the road.
When our work was done, we started heading back to our cars. The guy in front of me saw a large branch fall between him and his car, so he ran the rest of the way (ducking his head, although what’s the point of ducking if something is dropping straight down on you?) and zoomed off.
“What’s the hurry?” I thought, and I started clearing that branch out of the way of traffic.
Then a branch landed about ten feet away from me.
I ran back to the van, jumped in, and started driving.
Out of all that, no one was hurt.
The lady who drove off the road happened, just happened, to land in the one stretch of residential lawn. Most everywhere else was tree-filled swamp and the speed limit there is 50 mph. I don’t know who she was, but if she hasn’t yet thanked God for that lawn, she should.
We did not feel guilty in driving away since her car looked unharmed and she was standing and talking to someone. My wife was glad to be moving again, since the van was parked next to the section of trees that were falling.
While I was driving, my wife informed me that when 911 says to stay on the line and not hang up, they mean it. They called her back while she was waiting in the van. She told them the situation and they said that they had it reported.
Normally we’re late for things and we don’t have a very good excuse, unless “hey, we have young kids” counts. This time we had a very good reason (reason, not excuse), but since the birthday party was running late (hard to get someone to stay on schedule if she doesn’t know that there is a schedule) we made it in time for the surprise.
The birthday party was good and I ate way too much. On our way back from the birthday party, everything was back to normal. The road was clean, and if you didn’t know to look, you could easily miss the piles of branches in the ditches.
If the clouds are full, they pour out rain upon the earth; and whether a tree falls toward the south or toward the north, wherever the tree falls, there it lies.
Ecclesiastes 11:3
This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 6:24 am and has been carefully placed in the Life category.
May 17th, 2010 at 2:14 pm
It is cool when people just get something done instead of waiting for somebody official to do it. We had a (dead but not so rotten) tree fall on the road here, and within about 15 minutes there were three neighbors with three chainsaws and two trucks — and one with a Bobcat loader — working to cut it up and get it off the road. About an hour later it was done. If we’d waited for the county, it probably would have taken several hours or more to get the job done.
(Unfortunately necessary caveat: if the job actually requires an official or somebody with specific knowledge or skills, then don’t try to get it done without them. But clearing fallen trees requires none of that.)