I Saw A Big Tree Cut Down Yesterday

I happened to be driving by a public park where some guys -- working for the city -- had a big chainsaw and were cutting down a tree.

The tree had an orange X, meaning it was marked for destruction.

So, like I said, I was driving by, and these guys had the notch out of one side and were working on the opposite side. That meant it was going to fall in the direction of the notch. Thanks to gravity and the fact that there'd be nothing to hold it up on that side.

There they were, struggling with the chainsaw, two of them at times but mostly one guy. I was hoping the second guy wouldn't get his head cut off, because I didn't have my video camera with me at the time.

They struggled on like that for a time, going at it at various angles, keeping up the assault in a persistent way but stepping back repeatedly to discern their progress.

I sat in my car watching. My dog was in the car with me but she didn't seem to notice any of this.

At this point, I'm thinking, "That tree has stood there for 100 years. And now it will come down. How weird that I just happened to be driving by." Weird, but true. I knew, and I thought of it, it will come down but it will not go back up!

Just then, finally, there was a cracking and a movement, with the tree toppling and crashing to the ground. I was trying to see as much as I could, because, without my camera there'd be no instant replays. That's really the way to live the most intensely, by leaving the camera home and paying attention intensely. The dog heard the noise, was afraid, and hit the floor.

The tree quickly came to rest in a prone position.

Then, what's this? I saw a squirrel come running out of what used to be the top most branches and make a mad dash for a different tree! That makes you think, the squirrels have no idea what's going on, but suddenly a tree they've depended on all their lives went crashing down. It'd be enough to make a squirrel doubt the world and his security in it.