Saturday, October 17, 2009

I Hate Internet Explorer

Web Developers:

View the source of this blog entry and feel free to add the following code to the end of your pages. Let's deter people from using Internet Explorer until Microsoft simply gives up on it like they should have done so many years ago! And please encourage other web developers to follow suit.

P.S. If you are not using Internet Explorer, you won't see anything below this line.



Thursday, October 01, 2009

When a Tree Falls, and You're There!

This photo was taken just a few days before the incident I am about to describe. It is significant in that it is, as you might say, a "before" picture. You may not see much in this picture - I mean, the sky is still there - but the one prominent feature in this story, is, obviously, the tree.
Tree at sunset

A few days after I took this photo, while my wife was working in the Bay area, I was home in the evening, standing outside, watering her garden. I had not been outside in a while, due to being tied to my computer trying to meet a deadline, so the coincidence amazes me to this day that I happened to be outside at the time this happened.

It wasn't a huge event, but it was a new experience for me. As I was out watering the garden, I heard this loud pop. It sounded like my neighbor down the hill maybe was outside smacking a rug with a baseball bat or something. And then there was another one. And another. Pop! Pop! Smack!

I looked over to see if I could figure out what was going on down there, then suddenly the unexpected happened. There was a loud series of cracks and pops that sounded more like one collective crackle, and the one big (leaning) tree we had on our property just rolled over on its side like it was laying down to take a nap. CRRRAAAAACCCKKK!! SPLOOSH!!
Tree at sunset

It was really rather anti-climactic, as I always imagined big trees falling with big crashing thuds. And although the initial popping was somewhat loud, the tree just looked like it eased itself to the ground as though it were tired and sitting down to take a rest.

I felt sad for the tree, and felt sad that our big tree was, in a single moment, simply gone. It was home to squirrels as the base was littered with pieces of pine cones that the squirrels strewed about as they dug out the pine nuts inside. We later had someone come to cut the tree up for removal, and I counted the rings on the trunk, and the tree apparently was nearly 65 years old. Perhaps it was ready for retirement. More than 60 years this tree stood (leaning) there - it leaned quite a bit, so 60+ years was a surprising life span to me - yet it happened to fall one day while I happened to be standing outside in view of it, a year after I moved into my new home.

It has been a very dry summer, and I am convinced that had we thought to water the tree, it would still be standing. The roots were very dry. Apparently, they simply didn't have the strength to withstand the weight of the leaning tree above them, and subsequently, something finally gave way, and it was all down hill from there.

One reason is fell down so "gently" is because it had two other trees to break its fall.
Tree at sunset

We'll probably be removing those as well.

The tree fell right over top of our septic system, but miraculously, all the branches completely missed all of the tank covers, except for one, which spanned across the top of the main cover doing no damage. The only damage was to a piece of protective plastic screen atop a vent pipe. Fortunately, it also missed the main control box.
Tree at sunset

Here you can see the mighty roots that supported the tree all these years, and the earth that was disturbed around them as the tree toppled over.
Tree at sunset

And that's the story of the big tree that fell on our property. Goodbye, big tree! You'll be missed!