Trimming in the storm

So Eta continued to be a pain in the ass for us yesterday.  After hooking around in the gulf not only did it briefly intensify to a cat 1 hurricane, it also drifted more east, closer to us.  The east side of a hurricane is always the wetter and windier side of things.  Looking at the forecast on Dark Sky I saw outside of a brief 1-2 hour window in the morning it was likely to be raining all day.  I viewed that as my opportunity to get my greatly reduced tree trimming task done.  The guy I am paying to do the rest was supposed to show up yesterday but didn’t because of the storms which wasn’t unexpected.  What moron trims trees during a tropical storm? This moron.

In total I trimmed 15 trees.  Of those about half of them required me to use the ladder.  Instead of using my battery powered sawz-all I went old school and used the loppers for all of the trimming.  Because of the precipitation I thought using an electric power tool may not be a great idea.  It was not pleasant as you can imagine.  Working on a wet ladder while gusty wind is buffeting you is a little dangerous.  I also almost got the Tacoma stuck by the back fill pit.

I backed down towards the pit as I always would, not accounting for how wet the ground was.  When I tried to pull out I only got a couple inches until the tires started to spin.  I did a few gentle rocking maneuvers to try to free myself to no avail.  I didn’t go nuts gunning the motor as digging a wet muddy gully would have only made it worse.  I was thinking I may have to do the walk of shame to the neighbor to ask him to pull me out but I decided to try one more thing.

In the shed I founds good sized piece of 1/2″ plywood.  I lugged it out back and put it behind the tire that was spinning.  I couldn’t move forward at all so I thought if I rolled back onto the wood and then got some traction and momentum I could break free.  Imagine my surprise when my plan actually worked.  I triumphantly returned to pick up more branches, happy in that moment that my stubbornness and resourcefulness served me well. In total I worked a little more than three hours on the project, a far cry from the 8-9 hours it can take when doing everything.  I decided to take the last two days of this already fragmented week off so I would be around for whenever the tree trimmer gets here.

So the Trump denial show continues on.  All of the cast of characters that have been licking his boots all along are scared to tell it like is, fearing retribution from the Trumpers that they are now beholden to.  It’s really insane.  The ability of the man to mind control such a large portion of American society is indeed terrifying.  I swear if he told people the best way to water plants was with Gatorade, they would accept it, blindly. Idiocracy  fans will need no explanation.  Of course the more he denies, the more he pouts, the more he sues, the more he insists in living in a self created reality, the funnier it is going to be when he leaves.  Of course what is not funny is the damage he can do on the way out the door.