I looked out our kitchen window a few days ago and lo and behold, one of our palm trees was dead. When did that happen? How did it happen? And so suddenly. Usually death comes slowly to a palm tree. Dead fronds fall to the ground or something. The tree just doesn't suddenly give up the ghost. I don't think it was struck by lightning.
At any rate, a dead palm tree has to go. So I called our neighbors' tree guy, an older guy with an old truck, a trailer perpetually full of palm fronds and ladders (his main job is trimming palm trees), four younger guys who do the grunt work, and a dog. You're visualizing a rotweiller or a pitbull, aren't you? No, his dog is some kind of miniature white ball of fluff. He sits in the truck looking for the world like a miniature french version of a junk yard dog.
The "team" arrived within thirty minutes of the phone call ready to work. The purr of the chain saw warming up filled the quiet morning. Mr. Tree Man attacked the thick fibrous trunk of the palm first cutting it off at about 4' above ground, then slicing it into 3' to 6' sections. The crew, sometimes two together, sometimes one guy alone, picked up the sections, military pressed them above their heads and hoisted them up and over the built up walls of the trailer. The act was so effortless, so smoothly executed.. No torn rotatator cuff among them. No tender bicept, tricept or deltoid muscle. Of course, being female, I was never that strong but I do rememner tackling physical jobs with a gusto that is no longer in my repertoire.
Some years ago, not long after laproscopic knee surgery, I was hobbling into the grocery store. There were three worker type guys ahead of me. I was struck by the power of their walk, the spring in their step. It was like watching John Travolta in the openning scenes of Saturday Night Fever. And are
these young(er) people even aware of the effortless power of a youthful body? Of course not.
I always knew old people walked funny. What I didn't realize is that they walk that way because "it" hurts. That, and the ever present risk of falling, It's a wonder that we are out there walking around at all. http://youtu.be/okpCx87orOA (Touch the link twice to see and hear the video)
At any rate, a dead palm tree has to go. So I called our neighbors' tree guy, an older guy with an old truck, a trailer perpetually full of palm fronds and ladders (his main job is trimming palm trees), four younger guys who do the grunt work, and a dog. You're visualizing a rotweiller or a pitbull, aren't you? No, his dog is some kind of miniature white ball of fluff. He sits in the truck looking for the world like a miniature french version of a junk yard dog.
The "team" arrived within thirty minutes of the phone call ready to work. The purr of the chain saw warming up filled the quiet morning. Mr. Tree Man attacked the thick fibrous trunk of the palm first cutting it off at about 4' above ground, then slicing it into 3' to 6' sections. The crew, sometimes two together, sometimes one guy alone, picked up the sections, military pressed them above their heads and hoisted them up and over the built up walls of the trailer. The act was so effortless, so smoothly executed.. No torn rotatator cuff among them. No tender bicept, tricept or deltoid muscle. Of course, being female, I was never that strong but I do rememner tackling physical jobs with a gusto that is no longer in my repertoire.
Some years ago, not long after laproscopic knee surgery, I was hobbling into the grocery store. There were three worker type guys ahead of me. I was struck by the power of their walk, the spring in their step. It was like watching John Travolta in the openning scenes of Saturday Night Fever. And are
these young(er) people even aware of the effortless power of a youthful body? Of course not.
I always knew old people walked funny. What I didn't realize is that they walk that way because "it" hurts. That, and the ever present risk of falling, It's a wonder that we are out there walking around at all. http://youtu.be/okpCx87orOA (Touch the link twice to see and hear the video)
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