Monday, June 23, 2008

New Life Triumphant


Back in March I posted a photo of one of those instances where I dodged a bullet… or, more specifically, El Casa Móvil De Pennington dodged a bullet when this old forked tree came down during one of our better windstorms this past winter. The tree wasn’t old, actually. It was relatively young (at about 15 feet tall) but was most certainly diseased; the fork that came down had been dead for quite a while. The other half of the tree, however, looked pretty healthy and provided me with shade in the summer.

Well, that went away when the caretakers at Beautiful La Hacienda Trailer Park came out and cut the whole danged tree down in the process of hauling away the dead fork. I wasn’t home when the crime was committed and I would have objected (strenuously, even!) to losing that tree, had I been home. But…new life triumphs, as you can see… and what you see is about four feet worth of new growth sprouting out of the stump. I won’t get any shade to speak of this year, but in two years time? Should be good, methinks.

15 comments:

  1. Love this post. It can be a grim world, but the smart money always bets on life.

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  2. Mother Nature wins again!!!

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  3. Sometimes there is justice in the world.

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  4. I won’t get any shade to speak of this year, but in two years time? Should be good, methinks.

    This sound like a long time commitment.

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  5. Thanks, Barry. Life always comes through, albeit in ways that amaze and mystify, at times.

    Jenn: Digging out stumps is hard work, even little ones. It's much easier just to whack the new foliage with a weed-eater, ain't it? ;-)

    Jenny: Ma Nature always wins!!

    Sharon: I hear ya about justice. You can't imagine how pissed I was when I got home and saw the tree had been decapitated that day in March...

    Becky: Always and forever. Thank God.

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  6. Lou: I'm slowly coming to the realization that Portales might be forever. In my Big Book O' Life, anyway.

    AIIIEEE!1!!

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  7. I just love it when nature can thumb her nose at us mere mortals and our feeble attempts to beat her back.

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  8. Buck sez, "AIIIEEE!1!!"

    What if Cannon had been closed? It almost was a few years ago. Is being near an airplane patch important?

    And can you explain the joke about the bangs and 1's I've been seeing around, usually in veiled sarcasm, like "ONOZ!!!11!!" and "OMG!!1!" Is it a texting thing the kidz with the skilz do? (See, I got the skilz.)

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  9. Kris: Agreed. I'm thankful in this particular case, too.

    Bob sez: What if Cannon had been closed? It almost was a few years ago. Is being near an airplane patch important?

    In a word: yes. It IS important for me to be near a base (USAF preferably, but the Navy would do. NOT the frickin' Army or Marines, though.)... primarily for the medical care as I get older but also for things like the commissary and Class VI. I'd be gone if Cannon had closed.

    About that "!!!1!1!!" thingie... It's probably an apocryphal tale, but supposedly some moonbat didn't hit the shift key during one of his/her extraordinary run of exclamation points after a statement of (what they thought was) particular importance. Someone picked up on it and it just spread. Lex does it sometimes when he's being sarcastic; I did it for the same sort of effect... less sarcasm and more tongue-in-cheek in my case, though.

    And you DO have the skilz!

    Ash: It's not sad... it's renewal!

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  10. Buck sez, "I'd be gone if Cannon had closed."

    This was one (of many) arguments to keep it open. It was IMHO [<--skilz indicating abbreviation] one that was shallow (not that YOU made it, but many did).

    I'm glad Cannon won new missions on its merits, highlighting provided loudly by our politicians. Same for Kirtland. I like having a USAF base surrounding my office.

    No affection for Army or Marine bases, but "Navy would do"? I wonder why that? If a medical angle, let me just say I had very short experiences with Balboa, Long Beach and Oakland Naval hospitals. Anecdotal, yes, but none was worthy of high praise when I compare them with my experiences with "private" hospitals, but way above my experiences with one VA hospital in proximity to KAFB.

    Yes, this has nothing to do with the post concerning the recovery of a chopped tree.... Just me and the Sergeant chatting about the subtleties of the use of ellipses.

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  11. No affection for Army or Marine bases, but "Navy would do"? I wonder why that?

    With all due respect to my ground-pounding brethren, my experiences with the Navy and its facilities have been pretty positive, even after I retired; much less so with the Army/USMC. Things may have changed, but I kinda doubt it. It's that "quality of life" thing. And the NEX is better than AAFES, by a long shot!

    I'm with ya about the new mission at Cannon. That "but...people will leave!!" argument has never saved a single base that I'm aware of. But I'm oh-so-glad Cannon is still here.

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  12. Lou's comment hit on my first thought reading this post, that you're going to be there in two years :)

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