Tuesday, November 22, 2005

OMG YAY!!!!

I have TV again!!!  It's been 30 days.  Two different cable people came out to my house today and both seemed surprised when I told them the big cable had been snapped in the hurricane.  FFS at Comcast!  They are horrible.  This is after 3 other people had been here, surveying it.  The first one today fixed mine but wasn't able to fix the big one, meaning my neighbors still don't have cable.  :(  The second man was an asshole (although I'd probably be cranky too, working long hours for so long  --- hmmm turns out I am).  I explained yet again what was going on with the cable.  Instead of saying he didn't have the tools like the first one, he said "I'm not gonna dig anything!" in a cranky-man-voice.  I cautioned him about the tree and it still being fragile.  Then, he was like fine, I won't fix anything.  I smiled and thanked him for his excellent customer service.

Saturday, November 19, 2005

I visited my friend today.  She's had two chemo sessions and didn't look too hot.  I had a horrible migraine, but I felt that paled in comparison to what she's going through and wanted to keep her company.

When I came home, I gulped down Imitrex and went to bed. 

Friday, November 18, 2005

I might be a dirty tree-hugging hippie (except that I washed my hair today).

I'm sitting here crying watching a crew dismember my Queen Palm.  I was told that the crown is broken, and it will never recover.  I don't believe it since it just sent up two new fronds, but the top of the tree is listing badly.  I made them wait while I called my brother to ask him.  He said if it were his, he would leave it ... until I explained that it was four feet from my house.  Twenty feet of majestic palm-ness gone.  :(

I feel sick, and my house looks ugly now.  :((
 

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Today was my rescheduled follow-up visit to my dermatologist (previous one was missed because of the hurricane).  I already knew what she was going to say, but I went anyway.  She told me to start the Aldara again.  That spot on my chest looks smaller than before so I'm hopeful that I can beat it with just the cream.  I showed her another spot, and she advised me to use the Aldara on that, too.  Then, she asked about a different spot that looked suspicious to her, but I was fairly certain it wasn't new.  If it is, then I need to get it cut off as it could possibly be melanoma.  Sigh.  And, for the kicker, she cut one off of my face.  Cry.  I'm sure going to have a lot of character someday.  :(

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Here comes my next tree debacle.  Apparently my neighbor is massively coveting Irenic, my red latania palm.  She came over and asked if I knew how it got where it was.  WTF?  I said yeah, we planted it.  It's in an area of my yard that I affectionately refer to as Death Row --- so named because it's our backline and we couldn't keep anything alive there for a while.  This palm has flourished thankfully and looks gorgeous.  Apparently she and another neighbor were ready to jack it if it was a stray.  Again, WTF?  She tells me how expensive it is and keeps looking at me like I'm an idiot for planting it in the back.  WTF?  Can't I put nice looking trees in the back? 

My brother advised us to buy it a few years back at a local palm & cycad show.  It was obviously much smaller, and it wasn't that expensive (definitely less than Bertram was), but I kept that fact to myself.  As I'm surveying Death Row with her and letting her know that all of those trees are planted and therefore off-limits, I noticed that someone had run over my little Gumbo Limbo again with heavy equipment. ^&$^#%$#&^*!!!!  I don't think he'll recover this time.  :(

Wednesday, November 9, 2005

We had an old-fashioned barn-raising event last Sunday.  Except, we raised the mango tree instead of a barn.  Two friends from class are plant people, so we had expert advice and help.  Everyone from class showed up and pitched in.  I was very touched.  I called to invite my friend who is battling cancer now.  She used to attend class with me, and everyone always asks about her.   She didn't sound very good and said she couldn't drive anymore.  I immediately told her I would pick her up as soon as she got ready.  So, I missed the actual tree-raising, but it was for a worthwhile cause.  She was so happy to see everyone, and they her.  :) 

Please keep her in your thoughts as her cancer has spread extensively throughout her body and spine.

If you're keeping tabs on Manfred (the mango tree), we had to lop about 15-20 feet off of him to raise him up.  They used two come-along winches and anchored them to other trees, which fortunately didn't rip out of the ground.  It turns out he's a heavy sucker.

Monday, November 7, 2005

I meant to write sooner, but somehow I didn't have power when I had free time and then no free time when I had power.  As you might have heard on the news, a fairly powerful hurricane hit the southern half of Florida hard, with 98% of my county losing power.  I feel very fortunate as the storm moved quickly, starting as a category 3 (111-130 mph winds) and leaving as a category 2 (96-100 mph winds).  I'm sure you're wondering why that's fortunate.  To give you background, Wilma hovered over Mexico as a category 4 (131-155 mph) for over a full day.  I felt the winds for only a few hours and enjoyed them while they hit.  Okay, so I'm crazy, but everyone should be lucky enough to experience a hurricane.

I would make a hurricane ride at Disney World and vary the intensity each day so you wouldn't know ahead of time what category it would be.  People would keep coming back to feel them all. 

I went out in the storm with swim goggles on to protect my eyes from the driving winds.  I watched as my trees got buffeted about, pieces tearing off and flying by.  I saw my 30 foot mango tree stumble, lose it's balance and topple over.  I saw & heard roof tiles smashing about.  One of the most amazing sights was whitecaps in the canal behind my house.  It's usually smooth as glass.  The absolutely most incredible sight were the birds flying in the storm.  There weren't many who braved it.  Maybe they were the crazy fkrs like me who enjoyed the intensity & sheer powerful majesty of nature.

The eye of the storm hit the west coast of Florida at 6:30 AM and quickly was over me at about 9am.  There was quite a beautiful (if sad) light display of transformers blowing up in the morning (I lost power at 7ish) --- blue lights flashing over the horizon.  By 1 PM, most of the hurricane force winds had passed and it turned into a gorgeous day, with the temperature dropping into the high 60s with bright azure skies.  As I walked through my neighborhood, I couldn't believe how many downed trees there were.  Most of the giants who had survived last year's double whammy of Hurricanes Frances & Jeanne had fallen.  Lots of birds were sitting on the ground in these fallen masters looking cold & bedraggled.

More later...