three days ago they cut down a very old tree from our deceased next door neighbor’s front yard. the tree was over 120 feet tall and old. gina and sophia counted 89 rings on the stump that remained. i witnessed most of the cutting and it was pretty sad as there was nothing wrong with the tree. the irony of the situation was that the tree needed to be cut so that an oil spill could be cleaned up. the fifty year old oil tank that was under the tree had been leaking for many years and had contaminated a deep and wide area of the ground by the front yard of the house.

ruth's tree as it stood after 90 years

initially they had called a tree cutter from PA who was a total maniac. he just climb up the tree and started cutting huge branches and dropping them right onto the street. there was no way we were going to let him cut down the upper branches as they were over our house. we quickly put an end to his day or he would’ve really made a mess.

the crazy pennsylvanian

note the branch about to hit the ground. each branch probably weighed 500 lbs.

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tonight i was reading the lorax to my daughter. she’s 5 years old and my wife gina and i have been reading dr. seuss to her from before she could even understand a word we were saying. the man was pure genius - proven many times over - and truly a spirit ahead of his time. the lorax, oh the places you will go, and i saw it on mulberry street are absolutely amazing. but quite honestly, there aren’t any books of his that i don’t like. there are lessons in there for 5 year olds and 65 year olds.