Cleanup Begins

The neighborhood is a hive of activity today, resonant with the sound of chainsaws. So many trees will be lost; the rest will get a scalping in an effort to save them. I suspect most of the area will look like it’s been given a bad haircut… it will be visible for years to come.

Mom has already hijacked solicited people working in the neighborhood to come help us clear the yard and get the tree limbs off the fence and privet hedge. A clean-up crew finished their job a few houses away and are here now. Ours was actually a fairly small job but still required a chainsaw. Since we don’t own one (and it’s unlikely we’d be able to purchase one anywhere now), it’s a good thing there are folks willing to offer their services. These guys driving around in pickups with chainsaws are making a killing!

She’s also already talked to the tree service guys working down the street. They’re dismantling a huge tree that had fallen partially on a neighbor’s house. They’ll come and give us an estimate later and will put us in their work queue for sometime in the next few weeks. I never bothered to try to phone a tree service over the weekend. I just assumed that I wouldn’t reach anyone and had planned to try to make some contacts this week, after the severe emergencies had passed.

There’s still the matter of the power line over the garage. Though I’ve reported it to the electric utility it will be some time before they get to it; there’s still more than 100,000 people who are offline. Maybe the tree service we end up getting will do it instead.

I’d planned to do some clean up today and empty all our flower boxes. But, I managed to sprain my ankle while walking behind my garage. I’m a total klutz. So, instead I’m sitting here with ice on my ankle.

Update 

Mel emptied our flower boxes and Mom did hers. Mel left for PA after, to spend a couple days with her family. The yard got cleaned up for only $40. The tree service guys came and gave us a very reasonable estimate. They’ll be back within a few days or so to trim the trees.

After a late lunch I was on my way back to the couch to ice the ankle some more when I noticed a National Grid truck outside. Mom went out and flagged them down, asking “How does it feel to be the most popular guys around?” 😀 They laughed and answered “Weird!”

Turns out they were there to service all the calls from the neighborhood, so they took care of the tree limb resting on the line over my garage and reattached the power line to the house properly. It had come off partially which is why the line had looked stretched. They also did the same for my neighbors.

These utility workers were imports from Boston – you could tell by the accent – and were glad to not be battling wind and snow during their 18 hour work days. The weather was really nice today, sunny and around 60 degrees.

My neighbors came home just as they finished and also thanked them for the repairs. Just as they were getting into their truck to go the next stop, I saw a couple of little girls running down the street towards them. They handed the guys a plate of cookies, saying “we wanted to thank you before you left.” Seems they’d done repairs at their house too.

If you have to work 18 hours a day in an unfamiliar city it’s probably not so bad when you’re getting sunny weather, profuse and grateful thank-you’s, and plates of cookies.