This is a boring personal story, but if you are bored, then it probably won’t hurt you…

I think that I shall never see anything annoying as a tree, a tree whose trunk is prest against my driveway’s crest… well that isn’t exactly how Joyce Kilmer wrote that poem, but it reflects my current feelings. I narrowly escaped serious injury or death last Wednesday. It had been snowing hard that evening, a wet, heavy snow that sticks and slips simultaneously. I had finally reached home after a 1.5 hour commute and I was backing down my driveway. Just as I passed by the front yard, part of a tree fell into the driveway, directly in front of my car. When I say part, I mean an entire tree, more or less, as it is a circular magnolia which has different trunks in a circle, so it was one of these main trunks that fell. Apparently from the weight of the snow. At any rate, I was relieved and thankful that it had not fallen on me.

Since it was evening, I waited until the next day (Thanksgiving, kind of ironic eh), to try and move the tree, as my family was trapped (the other car was in the garage and I parked my car inside as well since I would not be going anywhere at that point). Well, my neighbor came across the street and we both tried to move it with no effect. My neighbor had to go, but said he would help later if I needed it. I cut off some of the branches and was able to drag the remaining trunk around into the yard, by the strength of something beyond me. How I did it, I do not know, as some of the branches I had cut earlier were too heavy to lift. With driveway cleared, I felt better as at least we were not trapped. So I left it for the next couple days as my family had Thanksgiving dinner and some friends and relatives visiting over the weekend.

I needed to get gas for the chain saw as the trunk, which was all that was left at this point would need to be moved to the curb. It is a new chain saw that my father sent me… I have never used a chain saw before and was somewhat apprehensive. Headlines flashed in my mind, “Man avoids being crushed by tree only to be killed in chain saw mishap”€. Well, the most difficult thing with using a chain saw is getting the darn thing started. It has a pull cord to start it, and uses a fuel & oil mixture. Basically, it would start and run for 5 seconds, but as soon as I pushed in the choke, it would shutdown. So I don’€™t know if the fuel mixture was not quite right or what, but it was very annoying. I was able to get it running long enough to make a few cuts, but the main trunk remained and I was too tired to pull the start cord… grrr. I am still thankful, but grrr… I will buy a hand saw (as I know how to use that, and I am pretty sure I can start it, duh).