MY MELTDOWN

Well, I should have kept my big flapping mouth shut Saturday about having nothing to do since the weather had put a cramp on my plans. Right in the middle of my closet cleaning, Big Bore announced that we had a major problem in the driveway, and if we didn’t take care of it, he wouldn’t be able to take the car to work. I thought he was kidding until I took a gander outside and saw a huge tree limb collapsed across the drive. On with the coat and gloves and out we went to clear the path. He sawed and I dragged the icy branches to the side of the driveway entrance.

It was what happened AFTER he went to work, though, that really chapped my ass royally. I kept hearing a motor running outside, so I finally took a look out the window and totally freaked out. A tree trimmer was topping off (as in butchering) the same tree and big branches were ALL OVER the front yard and on top of my beloved garden bed around the base of the tree. No one had the common courtesy to come to the door to advise me they thought the tree was a threat to a power outage and the trimming was necessary; they were apparently just planning to do a Hit and Run.

I immediately stepped outside to see what was going on. A man wearing a hard hat told me Westar had sent them around town to clear the way for the electric lines, blah, blah, blah. He claimed that sparks were flying and lights were flickering. I told him my lights were fine and I’d seen no sparks when I‘d been outside that morning clearing the fallen branches, and I sure hoped they were going to clear everything they’d cut down onto my yard and put it all by the curb rather than leave the holy mess they were making.

“No, we don‘t do that,” he said.

Now, mind you, there were five guys present from two vehicles. One was trimming the tree from a cherry picker, the guy talking to me was sort of telling him what to do, and three others were just standing around talking.

“You mean to tell me that you’re just going to come here, ruin my tree, and then leave it for me to clean up?” I was madder than I’ve ever been in life. Seriously. The hell word was flying.

“That’s what we’ve been doing all over town,” he said.

So, I went inside, put on my coat and gloves again, went back out, and started the clean-up process while the loiterers were still hanging out.

At one point, I guess one of them started feeling somewhat guilty and asked, “You want some help?”

“No!” I said, fuming. “I want you to leave! --And I sure hope Westar is paying you guys a lot to stand around and do nothing!”

If all this isn’t bad enough--wait until you read Part II. To be continued….