Nerds In Trees
Alright, time for an update. The majority of my weekend was spent doing something that would have made the Arbor Day Foundation blush. Yesterday we cut down part of a tree in our backyard, in the hopes of diminishing our yearly allotment of leaves. Our rationale was simple: less trees = less leaves.
At first I had no idea we were even going to cut it down; I was in bed listening to Car Talk when my mom called me outside to help. When I got out the back door, all I could see was the top of the felled tree facing me. The tree's persistent rustling suggested that my dad was somewhere in the whole mess cutting the tree into more totable sections.
Apparently my dad went out and bought a chainsaw; I never bother to follow his sporadic purchases of power tools so I wasn't at all surprised. I got to use it a little bit (if you can picture that: a scrawny nerd wielding an apparatus which might well have inadvertently cut his arm off), but then I gave up after the chain fell off for the third time. I retreated to the recesses of the leaves to tame the thinner branches that could be cut with tools that didn't require chains or electricity. Then my mom and I tied up the branches into gargantuan bundles and piled them near the neighbor's fence, perhaps hoping some leaves would casually flutter over into their yard.
So the ratio of trees to fallen leaf area has been diminished, if only slightly, hopefully affording me a few more minutes of less raking this Fall.
October 3rd, 2007 at 12:11 pm
OH NOOOO!!!!!! Did you guys get rid of the whole tree????? I'm going to be so mad if you did. It's all your fault.
October 3rd, 2007 at 12:44 pm
i hate to see live, healthy trees being cut down. I know we sometimes have to do so because they may damage or have the potential to damge our houses. But their magnifience and beauty just add so much to quality of life. plus, raking the leaves make you stronger.
October 3rd, 2007 at 9:15 pm
@ Steph: We didn't get rid of the whole tree. It was just that one section that until recently held up the clothesline. Now it's just a butt-ugly stump in the back yard
And remember, I was in bed listening to Car Talk so I claim no responsibility. Actually, I sabotaged the chainsaw so the chain would keep falling off (not really though). Clever, idn't it?
@ Mr Swope: Indeed, the section of the tree we cut down was already jutting precariously over an electrical line that leads from the house to the garage. I personally never saw the need to cut it down, but of course I didn't have much say since it was already down when I got outside. It's a sad truth that we're past the leaf-raking generation. This is the age of riding lawnmowers and leaf baggers, because we know that soon the world will be run on its behind.
October 4th, 2007 at 12:30 am
You know I have a zero-tolerance doctrine towards unrepentant stupidity. Don't pretend you weren't aware of that already. Oh, and tell Swope that, really, truly, I did not watch the Emmys. No secret room or anything. I don't watch enough TV to really justify watching an awards ceremony anyway, but I am upset that I didn't watch it because I wished I could've seen Colbert, Stewart, and Carell's onstage group hug and giddy jumping-about.
Umm...
本当に、私はエミーズを見ませんでした。
I probably messed that up somehow. The really weird thing is that, now that I'm taking Japanese, all my Spanish keeps coming back to haunt me...Spanglish is one thing, but Japanish is another. I cannot explain the way my brain handles foreign languages.
October 4th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Lily, I thought you were better than name-calling. So far I've presented a good number of reasons for my beliefs. All I've received from you is petty mudslinging. We all know you can throw about offensive words, but I'm not that uncritical that I'll just suppose you're right since you have the capacity to call me unintelligent. I have concrete reasons for my views, but all you have done is throw about abstract phrases vaguely linked to what you think is enlightened thought.
Please, I'm deliberately and enthusiastically inviting you to justify your atheism, or else stop turning your ignorance into information and calling it enlightenment. And if logical, sound thinking is "unrepentant stupidity," I stand guilty as charged.
October 4th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
so who is this Lily person? I'm standing with Phil, if you ACTUALLY understand what he's talking about, then you might've too. sometimes we don't straight up post the reasons for our decisions, but we can if asked, so don't think we don't have any because they're not immediatly posted.
October 11th, 2007 at 8:52 pm
What the...I don't even know what you're talking about or where this came from or why you have your little private army of yes-men along for the ride. You insist on it?
Explanations, eh? Since when have you ever explained anything? But I forgot, the burden of proof is never on the accuser's side. Proove there is a god, then. Anything, any piece of evidence that hasn't been manipulated, present it. I see no evidence, therefore I see no reason to suppose belief. And even if there were some sort of deity (or two or three etc.), the idea that it would be deeply invested in the personal lives of a bunch of mortals is, to me, laughable. It seems highly illogical. Now if you're just going to badger me about stuff, then why don't you just leave me alone? Are you just doing this to try and make yourself feel superior?