I Had Me A Word

So I marched myself on over to Old Crusty's house last night.

We got home and Pat got the mail. I was busy getting my coat off and such, and he came into the kitchen with something in his hand and said, "here's something you might be upset about."

Never a good way to open up a conversation.

As he was sorting through the mail, he saw a blank envelope, and he knew it couldn't be good. Sure enough, she did it again. This time it was short and sweet. Something to the effect of "Take down that birch tree. I'd hate to have to sue you for damages."

Give me a flippin' break. Does she really thing that these notes are going to suddenly open up our eyes (and bank account) and we're going to have an "ah-ha" moment and say "OH! She's RIGHT!! We'd better have that tree taken down IMMEDIATELY!!"

Methinks not.

If anything, her ineffectual pieces of annoying correspondence are steeling our reserves against EVER doing ANYTHING with the tree, no matter what shape it deteriorates into or what threat it poses to our own home, not to mention hers. Argh. I'm so annoyed.

So, anyway, I slipped the coat back on and headed out the front door. After talking with her, I really think maybe she's losing it. She kept kind of laughing - which I found somewhat disconcerting. I was pretty composed, surprisingly, considering that my blood was boiling, and simply asked her to stop. I told her that we were not concerned with the tree, and had no plans to remove it any time in the near future, and that if she wished to sit and obsess about it, then that was her business, and to please leave us out of it. And furthermore, we had a tree specialist look at it, and he told us that it posed no immediate danger of falling on anyone's house.

She hemmed and hawed, and tried to make a couple of lame arguments, and kept going back to the fact that we'd have to pay for "the whole thing." Whatever that means. Then she said something about didn't we see how she had that tree taken down in her back yard. I'm not sure what that's supposed to do with anything - but I told her that was great. That's her property and her business, and this is our property and our business.

So we'll see what happens next. I'm tempted to plant a whole row of trees right along the line between our properties. Then maybe we'll host a big block party for Arbor Day next year.