The wind blew in gusts of 50 mph yesterday. With a bow saw on each shoulder I climbed 20 feet into the snarled branches of the cherry tree. Twisting and turning and swaying in the branches I pulled myself up with one arm while cutting limbs with the other. Hefty limbs toppled around me, grazing my shoulders and back before crashing to the ground. When I was done the base of the tree was shoulder deep in tree limbs and the cherry tree was 10 feet shorter.
I left the debris and took Rachel for her first highway driving lesson on route 95.
Rachel neglected to check her side mirrors and forgot to look back over her left shoulder, so she had no reason to believe that there would be a problem in changing from the middle lane to the high speed lane. There was a problem. There was a car in the passing lane, right at the back bumper of our car. I saw it before she did, and at 65 mph time slowed down for me and nearly stood still. Three seconds felt like 30 seconds.
We averted a crash.
When we got home my body went into hibernation, completely depleted from the adrenaline rush. I was asleep within minutes and slept soundly for an hour. When I woke up I reviewed the episode with Rachel who simply said, in her own defense, “I signaled.”
