SPRING BREAK IS OVER! and APPLE TREE

I think....

the worst is over.

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Well, for now anyway.

Working every single day was getting to me not only physically

but mentally.

So much so that I...

Lost it.

I won't go into it here but I went into HR's office

and kinda let loose with everything.

About how I felt and blah, blah, blah.

I couldn't shut up because I was so emotional.

Anyway, there's definitely much more to this story but I will 

just say that it has been said that my schedule will change and they will be hiring more help.

Other news, a week ago last Sunday the weather was beautiful.

(Today there was icy/sleet/rain)

But a week ago it was gorgeous outside and after I worked the morning

I called my niece Lily to see if she could come help me prune a tree.

I have an Apple tree in my front yard that I planted when I moved in 

almost 23 years ago and I've tried to trim it now and then 

but it was now towering 2 stories tall and had large limbs extending over my yard,

across the driveway and up near my front porch.

So Lily came over and I had my trusty Sawzall out (a reciprocating saw).

I tried to cut a limb above my head, I've done this before but this time I wasn't able to hold the saw above my head for that long.

All my energy was gone.

So we carried out my extension ladder and propped it against the tree.

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I have a fear of heights but I didn't have to climb too high.

Lily told me to get down. She has the same fear but up the ladder she went.

I made sure the ladder was on solid footing and then I handed her the saw.

I told her that she wouldn't fall but if she did, the most important thing to remember was to throw the saw as far away from her as possible.

I said that I didn't want her cutting her leg off.

Then I told her that if she had to throw it, not to throw it towards me.

She gave me a "Lily look" and I said that I was serious and

that I had climbed up on the ladder in the backyard a few years back and the ladder started to go over and I threw the saw.

I said I had bent the blade but still had all my limbs.

Lily told me to hold the ladder tight.

So she got up there and cut down a good size branch.

Then I unplugged the saw and had her hand it down to me and held the ladder as she inched down.

She had cut the branch that had stretched across the front yard.

I started to move the ladder and she said "Now what?"

I told her that we had to cut the one across the driveway!

It had grown out so far that it was scraping against the roof of the van.

So we did the whole routine again.

Then I stood back and looked at the tree and said "It's lopsided!"

"No it's not!" Lily said and I called to her to walk down to the front of the yard and look.

She walked up to me turned and frowned.

Then we walked back to the tree and moved the ladder again.

"Do we have to do this NOW?" she asked and I said "Yes!"

I told her that now was the time that trees were "dormant" or something like that and we had to cut them before they "bud".

I said we had no time to waste.

So the ladder didn't seem to have a sturdy footing so we started to move it again.

All of a sudden the neighbor man came out.

I told him were either pruning the tree or killing it.

He said we needed a rope but I didn't have a rope so he went to his house and got us one.

He had to go to get dinner so he left and Lily and I tied up the big limb brushing the front porch.

She got up the ladder and I told her to remember to throw the saw

and I walked back and pulled hard on the rope.

Down came the huge limb.

Then I helped Lily down and we cut it and the others up into manageable pieces.

Then we walked back down the driveway and looked at the tree again.

"Now it really looks stupid!" I said.

It had three branches left.

They shot up towards the sky and at weird angles.

I said they had to go too.

I told her they were longer than they looked and we had to make sure they didn't fall and hit a car passing by.

So we cut two and then cut them into pieces and dragging to the big branch pile.

That left the last tallest one.

I told her to move her car over in front of the neighbors house and away from mine.

I backed my van as far back as I could into my driveway/lawn.

Then we tied that thing around and around.

I put the ladder so it was wedged hard in the remaining part of the tree and over a fork of a limb so that there was no way for it to fall.

All the other limbs had been cut to the point where they would start to slowly crack and crash in slow motion to the ground.

Not this one.

I pulled on the rope and I could see that dang thing coming at me.

But like I had told Lily, they are longer than we realize.

I tried to move fast but I wasn't fast enough and I didn't want to hit me in the head

so I put my arms over my head and it hit me hard on the wrist.

I gotta say, it hurt so bad that I thought it was broken.

Lily kept saying stuff to me like "Can you move it?"

and "If you can move it it's not broken" and "If it's broken you couldn't stand the pain"

And I was saying stuff like "shut up!" "Shut Up" "SHUT UP!" and

"Just be quiet a minute" and "I need a minute to deal with this!"

I was bent over in pain and I just needed some silence.

She stepped back and forth over the branches and came up to me.

"I told you not to come down off that ladder with the saw!" I moaned.

"I'm just checking on you! and if you can move it, it's probably not broken".

I practically yelled at her that "I broke my arm when I was five and went a whole day with it broken before I told anyone and I'm sure I moved it then!"

Then I wiggled it a bit and she looked down at it and said

"You need to put some ice on it or some vegetables".

"Vegetables?" I raised my eyebrows

"Frozen vegetables I mean" she smirked.

I wiggled it some more and then said "Let's cut this thing up before it's dark, it will be dark soon".

It won't be dark for a while" she said.

"It's getting dark NOW" I said.

Lily looked up at the sky "No, it's not getting dark, it's going to rain" 

I looked up and said "They didn't forecast rain, it's just getting dark!"

We just looked at each other for a moment and then started cutting the limb into pieces and dragging them to the branch pile.

When we finished Lily looked at me and said "You need to go put some ice in your wrist"

and I said "OK. I will, and thanks honey for helping me"

"Sure" she yelled as she went down the driveway.

"Love you" we both yelled to each other.

and then I said "Be careful driving home...in the dark"

and she gave me that Lily look again.