A Crooked Tree...

This morning, as I took a morning walk around the yard with my dog (she and I needed to be outside for totally different reasons...), I noticed our lone apricot tree. It's on the northeast corner of our strange-shaped lot, and it's crooked.

I remember hearing a story from about a man who planted a tree in his yard that grew crooked. If I recall the story correctly, he thought he could put a brace up and right the tree, but when he went to do it, even thought the tree did not look that sturdy, he found it did not want to grow the way he wanted. The morale of the story was to take action early in the growing process. Because if we are allowed to bend to the wills of outside influences, we may not grow straight and true.

I understand the lesson and even agree to the points. But something about it bugs me. When I look at my tree, I see something formed by its circumstances. The reason it bends is due to to the incredible east winds we have living on the side of a mountain.

You can't see it in the picture, but the base of the tree is scarred as if it was scratched by an animal, or nibbled away by a deer. It's amazing it's survived, to be honest. When I look at the tree, I see the tree's history. I see strength. I see a will to live, even with the elements seemingly conspiring against it. I see a little bit of myself in it--scarred by life.

I suppose, if I followed the advice of storytellers and arborists, I should take action--should have taken action years ago to make sure the tree has the best chance of surviving. I wonder if it is allowed to mature for years to come, will it tip over? I don't know. Across the street there's an apricot tree that's been there more than fifty-two years, longer than I've been alive. I wonder if our little tree will outlive my family.

Time will tell.

A Different East Wind Experience...

If you told me before I went to sleep last Saturday night that I would be making a trip to our garage in the middle of the night and end up atop a ladder almost thirty feet above our main floor, I probably wouldn't have believed you.

But that's exactly what happened.

Oh, and the power was out, too.

Many of my friends have commented on a big wind storm we had over the weekend. It did some damage, trees down, fences blown over, shingles missing. We've lived through these storms in the past and we went to bed hoping the damage would not be too severe. 

The power went out around 2:30am. No big dead--we're supposed to be asleep anyway. What we didn't expect and what we have not experienced before was our smoke alarm going off.

You might be thinking, "No big deal. Just take down the smoke alarm and you're done. Well, not so much for us. We have an A-Frame house and the alarm going off was at the very top of the ceiling. In order to reach the alarm, I had to go to the garage and haul up our 10' ladder. With my wife and I using the flashlight apps on our phones, we were able to get the ladder up two flights and get the smoke alarm to stop.

The power came back an hour later. I was able to sleep the rest of the night, but needing a ladder in the middle of the night was something new. I'm glad that's all it was. Some had a lot more physical permanent damage done to their stuff. I'll take a smoke alarm going off any day.

Thoughts...During A Wind Storm...In The Middle Of The Night

Our cat kept us up last night. Of course, he's not the only thing. The near hurricane east wind shares much of the blame. If there had been no east wind, the cat would have gladly strolled around the house in the middle of the night. This picture shows how the wind carved up the newly-fallen snow.

However, with a howling wind, that darn cat just didn't want to go outside. So he would hiss and carry on and not allow us to sleep. Eventually, the wind died down and the cat went out. But as I sat up around 3 a.m., I had a couple thoughts creep into my mind.

I started thinking about cancer. I read a Facebook post about a friend of many of my friends passed away yesterday from cancer. Cancer's been in the news a lot this year; it's taken many from us, both famous and the everyday. Personally I've lost good friends and friends of friends recently. When I was eight it took my father, and almost nine years ago (I can't believe it's been that long...) it claimed my mom.

Maybe it was that Facebook post, maybe it was because it was the middle of the night and I hadn't gotten a lot of sleep, but cancer was on my mind. Cancer doesn't work well in today's culture, a culture of fairness and equity and feeling good and having nothing bad happen. No, there's no room for diseases that attack both the innocent and the guilty in our modern world, for those who've taken care of themselves and done everything right or those who didn't care at all. 

The thing about cancer is, cancer is 100% honest. It doesn't lie. It just is. It doesn't follow any fairness doctrine. It doesn't care what you think about it. Sometimes it goes away but most times it completes its mission. It's as natural as a tree or a squirrel or a weather system. I'm no doctor or scientist, so I have no scientific claims to back up my statements--I'm sure those who are will say that cancer is not natural. Maybe they're right...maybe.

I wished I could control the wind last night. It would meant getting more sleep. I wish I could take away these cancers that are killing us. I have as much power to do one ask I do the other. I don't know if we'll ever cure cancer. I know many have dedicated their lives to finding out. Personally, I don't think it will ever happen. Cancer exists to prove to mankind that life not only isn't fair, but that it's never really been, no matter how often we tell ourselves it should be...

We Survived Another Big Wind...

I don't know why--I'm sure a geologist or meteorologist can explain it, but for some reason there's a small corridor of land between Ogden and Salt Lake City Utah where, when the wind blows, it blows hard. Starting Monday afternoon the winds started and they didn't stop until Tuesday night.

We've had strong winds in the past. I think this storm recorded hurricane-strength winds in our town. I wouldn't doubt it. I tried reaching my car early Tuesday morning and I was almost blown over. What scared me was the darkness. If I made it to my car, I wasn't sure if I could see any black ice. I decided to stay home and work on my day off later in the week.

As usual with these storms, the news showed pictures of blown over semi-trucks on the interstate that runs through town. One of these winds that his years ago even blew over a train. That was pretty amazing.

Monday morning we had a foot of snow on the ground. By Monday night all the snow was gone, or it was moved. Some areas had no snow, others places had drifts several feet high. It was actually pretty cool. I tried taking pictures and videos that would capture all the fun, but the images fail to show just how strong the wind was. It's hard to see but in the picture of the pine tree the right side of the tree has been blown away. The trunk of the tree is actually not in the middle of the tree, but close to the right side. Below the very top of the tree is where the trunk is.

Tuesday night the wind began to die down. It tried picking up a few times. We sat at home and it was strange not hearing the howling outside. Like people who live on the East Coast and deal with hurricanes or Californians living with earthquakes, those of us who choose to remain where we live, we'll again encounter east winds, and they'll be bad. But for us, living here is worth a strong wind every once in a while.