OHMYGOD, there’s a tree

Wednesday, October 18, 2023

We got a letter from the city about a month ago that they were going to planting trees to replace the ash trees they took down…whenever that was. A few weeks ago, someone put a stake in our yard – not even close to where the tree had been. The big old tree had been between our driveway and the neighbor’s and the stake was in our front yard. It was oddly near our existing front yard tree. It was definitely NOT where we wanted a tree. We called.

The arborist said they couldn’t put the tree where the old one was because of roots – which I found interesting because they came and ground out the stump and I would have thought that would have removed enough roots for a new smaller tree to be planted there. In my tree knowledge imagination, the old roots would just compost away while the new tree was growing and everything would work out. I guess real tree knowledge says no. She said she had picked a so-and-so oak tree to plant in our front yard because it would grow tall and wouldn’t compete with the crabapple tree.

Huh.

I still thought it looked like a weird place to put a tree, but I also thought if there was a tree there, it would just be there and no one would think, “That’s a weird place for a tree,” because it would just be and no one would think about it. (Except probably me. I’m a thinker.) If someone is giving you a tree, I always think it is a good idea to just say thank you. She said she would come back out and take a look and talk to Keith about it, since he is always here to be talked to. She did not. I thought about our potential free tree and thought we should just say yes, thank you. But we didn’t because inertia.

I was walking toward the front door this morning about 9am and I saw the new tree out the window to the side of the door. I literally stopped walking and said, “Ohmygod, there’s a tree.” (That’s where I got the title for today.) There was NOT a tree last night and then BAM, there was a tree. No need to think about it anymore. I started upstairs to tell Keith, then thought I would let him notice on his own.

It’s really hard to keep a surprise when there is no reason to keep it a surprise other than SURPRISE!

He was down here a couple times – eating breakfast, getting a drink, talking about lunch. He looked outside and said, “The garbage cans are moved up onto the driveway.”

I waited. I thought he would wonder about that and look around for clues. The new tree was very close to where the garbage cans had been and really close to where the garbage cans were now. He said nothing. He said since it had stopped raining he was going out to get the garbage cans. He went out the garage door and I opened the front door to watch him see the tree. He walked down the driveway, grabbed the handles on the garbage cans and started back up the driveway. He came back in. He said nothing. I waited. One minute. Three minutes. Five minutes. I was bursting.

“Are we playing the same surprise game?” I thought maybe he was waiting for me to see the tree. Surprise! I had already seen the tree.
“What surprise game? Is there a surprise?”
“Yes. Are you surprising me?”
“No. I don’t have a surprise. Do you have a surprise?”
“Yes.”
“Tell me now. Is it in the house? Is something new? Should I see something?”
“It’s not in the house.”

I took his hand and led him to the front window. He looked out….and…..finally saw the tree!

“There’s a new tree! I did not see that tree. I was just out there. Did they plant it since I came in?”

Teehee

I texted Erick this morning to mention he had borrowed my Tupperware and the next time he was in Woodbury, he could drop it off here or at his parents. I have never had anyone drive all the way across the city (not Woodbury, the greater Twin Cities) to return something. Wow. We had a lovely visit. Tupperware – bringing people together!