At least once a month for the last I don't know how many years, somebody would knock on my door or ring my door bell and as I'd could to answer the door I'd see them smoking a cigarette and staring at my leaning pine tree.
"Yawanmetatakerdown?" they'd ask.
Or they'd tell me what kind of damage it would do to my house if it did fall like I wasn't aware of this lumbering pine tree in my yard.
Usually I'd tell them that it survived a couple of hurricanes and a wicked ice storm or two and that despite the looks of it, I wasn't too concerned about the tree coming down on my house.
I'd usually ask them for an estimate or a card and tell them I'd call if I ever needed the job done.
And that was that.
Until the drought hit this summer and some report on the news said that dry, brittle trees could pose serious problems this winter having been weakened by the drought.
Not that we could spare the money but we finally decided it was time to take it down before it took us down...
