the tree had been my friend

    At 12:10, while I was talking to Brian on the phone during his lunch break Friday, I suddenly heard this loud boom/thud type noise. I rushed and looked out the front door, but saw nothing. 'Weird'. Not ten minutes later the phone rang, it was my neighbor Chris. "Have you seen your tree?" "Which tree?" "The one along the alley" "I head something a few minutes ago and looked out the front door, but didn't see anything." He chuckled and told me to come to my door. "Which door?" "Your back door". I did. Chris was standing on the little platform next to out small porch, looking towards the alley. I stepped out beside him, and gasped. I guess the noise I had heard, was the trees tap root snapping.

    This picture was taken while I was standing near our parking spots in the alley.

                                                      (F.P. + Tree 202)

     The tree had literally uprooted, the extreme strong winds we had had the night before had been it's literal down fall.

                                                (F.P. + Tree 203)

    I told Chris to stay there a minute and I rushed in and grabbed the phone. Chris thought I was calling the neighbors, who's parking spot the tree was 'too close for comfort' to. Nope, I was calling Brian. He only had 5 minutes left of his lunch break. "The tree fell... .. ... I need you to come home!"  I had awaken with quite a migraine that morning, it hadn't subsided much and I was very fuzzy brained. Dealing with all of the phone calls that were going to need to be made, figuring out how to get this handled without costing us a fortune... I needed help.

    While Chris went to personally tell the other neighbors, I started moving stuff to block the alley. There was no way I wanted somebody who cuts through our alley, deciding that they could fit under there and end up having a bigger problem on our hands. 

                                                      (F.P. + Tree 205)

    We moved the neighbors car safely out and into our then empty parking area. When Brian got home, he called Consumer's Energy while I called our home insurance company.  The power lines were barely above the neighbors garage roof. The lady at the power company said that she was going to list them as laying on the roof, that would move it up the priority list. We knew that in reality, it wouldn't be long before they were! Brian then called the city's non-emergency number. While talking to the guy he suddenly realized, 'I know that voice'. "Mary?" "Yes sir, my name is Martin D.... " "It's Brain B." Marty was going to send a fire truck by, "just to double check everything".  "Does he remember my aversion to fire trucks?!!" I asked Brian. He chuckled. 

    While looking the situation over, one of the firemen turned to Brian and said, "Somebody was looking out for you, if those two wires had been pulled together, instead of separated when the tree landed on them, they would have most likely started a fire." While we hadn't yet realized that part, we had known God had spared us greatly. If the tree had leaned towards the house instead of the alley, there would have been great damage. If the tree had broken apart while falling over, the neighbors car would have been totaled. If somebody had been driving through the alley at that moment... . THANK-YOU LORD!

                                                       (F.P. + Tree 204)

                                                        (F.P. + Tree 206)

    The Firemen had gotten out their yellow tape to tape off the area, but then decided that the blockades I had put up would probably be more effective. :-]  

   More of the base of the tree. 

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   Consumers Energy was there so fast we were really surprised!

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    They got all of the tree onto the ground.

                                                         (214)

                                                            (213)

                                                                      (217)

     Then they left, stating they had notified the city that they needed to come do the clean up. We hoped they wouldn't wait till Monday. We were amazed just how fast they showed up. A couple of big trucks, one puling a trailer with a bob cat on it.

                                                                (220)

     Brian came in for a bathroom break and they had it done before he got back out. As they were lifting one big piece into the back of the truck, we saw just how rotted the one branch of the 'Y' in the tree has been, yet the other branch of it was totally solid. 

    All in all, from the time it fell, to the time the city left (only leaving some leaves for Brian to sweep out of the neighbors parking area), less than an hour had passed. WOW! 

     I titled this posting "the tree had been my friend". The shade it had provided our house over the years, had been greatly appreciated! I fondly remember the numerous years of baby squirrels chatting at us through the living room window, from their home in the knot of the tree. I also fondly remember the mother goose who had built her nest in the broken off branch of the one part, one year. I don't remember what year that was, but I know I had posted about it... o:-p. The grown squirrels had still loved to jump from the branches of  the tree and loud with loud "Thumps" on the roof, directly above my bed, early in the morning, and then again numerous times through out the day. Very often, there would be at least two loud thumps and then a game of chase would begin.  The squirrels also loved to sit in the tree and watch my GRAND children play inside. The GRAND children liked going to the window and talking to the squirrels.

    Wish it didn't take so long for a new tree to grow next to that spot!