4th of July -- 2021

I celebrated the 4th by sitting on the sofa, looking at the view, and wondering what the fireworks would look like with our new view.

Our next-door neighbors already had this view. But this is the year of tree removal, the year of the melody of chainsaws, the year of tree death. Yep. Our nest was once cloaked in beautiful pine trees, and now we can see six counties from our deck.

But let me back up. When the white man first came to our neighborhood, I'm guessing there were trees. Perhaps the Coast Live Oak trees that randomly sprout in my garden. Later came tree clearing, and ranching (hey, grass!) and eventually houses. People like trees with their houses, and a neighborhood guy planted a line of trees behind us that eventually stood between our houses and the view. We really liked the trees, the interplay of the trees and the fog, and the daily commute of the crows from their daytime locations to those trees.

Tree Planter Dude was not smart about trees. He planted trees that get huge quickly and die at 50. Over the past five years they've started crumping en masse. We'd hear what the neighbor's sister called "peckerwoods" (wood peckers) and when the peckerwoods come for you...your time is coming. You have bugs and are officially dead. Storms toppled trees onto houses. And then it was pandemic time and the saws came. The soundtrack of the pandemic has been saws and chippers.

And...this is the fireworks display at my house.

Same as it ever was!