So, how do you value ten minutes? Last Friday night my wife and daughter are returning home from a softball outing in Titusville and arrive home about midnight. 12:15 and my daughter comes into my room and tells me a tree limb fell in the front yard. Now I went to bed at my normal time of 9:30 and was about as asleep as a guy can be when she tells me this. So naturally I tell her to drag the limb to the street and I will take care of the problem tomorrow. She then proceeds to tell me twice more about this limb and in frustration I tell her to leave me alone I am sleeping. She then drops an 'f' bomb about this limb in the front yard. Well as expected that got me out of bed in a hurry. Not sure that I expected the bomb but if she is dropping that, it must be serious. Brings to mind the time my brother Jim was home on leave from his service to our country back in the late 60's and came into the farm house during dinner time and very excitedly stated that the back field was on 'f'ing fire. My Father very calmly stated that we were eating dinner and would remain at the the dinner table until Grace was said. Five seconds later we all were on our way to fight a field fire. But back to this limb in the front yard. As the girls were unoading the car from the softball game, my wife heard a cracking sound outside and walked out into the driveway to investigate. Seeing no problem, she turned and walked back toward the garage. As she took a couple of steps this water oak came crashing down. Ten minutes earlier and she would have been sitting in the driveway waiting for the garage door to open and that would have been a totally different story to be told. A couple of friends and my son spent Saturday afternoon helping me getting this tree to the street for pickup. End of day today, four days later, the tree and all evidence of it are gone. Cheryl and Taylor are fine and it may be time to remove that last tree. In a side bar that gold Jeep is number 16 and became the pride of my daughter's life a week ago.
