Personal Note: OH. EM. GEE.

I was away visiting my parents this weekend and we commented off and on the entire time about the wind, which was gusting fiercely around the house and bringing down loose branches here and there. When I returned home this morning, however, I discovered that I had missed the main event: the three-story maple tree in my across-the-fence neighbor's yard had its top half sheared off sometime yesterday (I suspect) and fell, narrowly missing my house. It crushed the fence and my beloved mulberry tree (きさま！), dropped branches all over my porch, and is currently blocking the sidewalk. It must have made a terrible noise coming down -- I'm rather glad I missed that. I put in a call to the condo association, though I suspect the world is before me in notifying them of the event. But ye gods and little fishes! it's certainly an impressive catastrophe. One of the local woodpeckers has been flying in to perch intermittently on the remaining upright stump, possibly with a slightly stupefied expression ("I swear, I only touched it and the whole thing fell down!").

I am regarding the neighbor's equally tall oak tree with a jaundiced eye, though it appears far more healthy than the maple tree ever did.