Have A Bad Day At The Office, Hon?

Have you ever had those days where nothing seemed to go right for you? Where every time you turned around something went wrong again? Well, this has not been a bad day, it's been a bad WEEK.

It all started off when I was shocked out of bed a few minutes before seven o'clock by the sound of a chainsaw Burrrring right outside the bedroom window...and the heavy, house-shaking bonking of trees falling onto the street. Men shouting and auto horns blearing. Good grief, it was like some kind of tumultuous Hollywood disaster drama playing itself out in my street.

We have had a long and drawn-out battle with the city council over the felling of more than one hundred trees here in the neighbourhood. We lost (of course)...and that morning the worst fears became a reality.
Now I want to see the trees replaced once the street and bicycle path work has been completed.

Here are a few fotos to show what happened:
The trees were marked like some kind of Biblical story that took place in Egypt.








When they were through with the other side of the street, then they began on ours. This is the big sycamore right outside the balcony.








All done with the segment in front of our flat.


...and now they move further up the street in the direction of the Provincial Road. You can see that all the trees and bushes have been removed.


It is all quite saddening, very sad-- but also infuriating in these times of global warming and the need for trees to help reduce CO2.

Next thing was the picture book that I had been working on for many weeks: Some of the pictures turned out to have a sort of saw-tooth effect present in the finished product...you know, along some straight edges (aliasing). Apparently their software could not correct this. All that work, and then this disturbing effect. It sort of ruined the book for me.

Then we got a call from the m-i-l. After going over there and questioning her then calling her doc, she got some meds and he said to call back if it didn't improve. It didn't, and she landed in the hosp.
She's back home now and feeling better.

When I woke up yesterday, I swung around in the bed (still yawning and drowsy) and plopped my feet onto the ground to stand up and ooh...YUK! My bare foot plopped right onto some cat barf on the rug. Cold, wet, and squishy. I rolled my eyes heavenwards and shook my head. "What now?", I muttered.
I lifted my foot and grabbed a couple of Kleenex tissues, wiped the bottom of my foot and got onto my knees to inspect further. I inspected because it looked dark green...PLANT green. This was no 'normal' deposit of stomach contents...

That got me awake in a hurry. I knew that it could not have come from their favourite--the Dracena; no, these were fresh, soft leaves. I could see them easily because they had not been chewed.

I have seedlings on the windowsills here now--broad beans and marigolds. Marigolds were out, and after looking at the broad beans, I saw only one leaf that had been mangled, and it was still on the stem. What, then?
Then it hit me...OH NO!!! My little Clematis that I have been nurturing since last summer. I quickly looked and let a little gasp escape as I saw that it's new spring shoot had been bitten-off mid stem. ARRRRRHGGGGHH! :twisted:
I heard..."meow" at the door and jerked my head around and glared at Roos, bearing my teeth and narrowing my eyes.
The saying goes, "There is more than one way to skin a cat" and I was thinking to myself, "One will do".
I took one step and Rood bolted. I guess she could tell that I was angry, but didn't know why, of course.

It's always THAT cat, her sister is too uninterested in everything in life to take such an initiative. Roos had eaten some plantlets last year for the first time.

These happenings plus all the little things like antisocial behaviour in traffic, people getting in front of you in the supermarket, little irritations at work, etc, etc...it all just sort of snowballs. :-?

Well folks, thanks for lending an ear--I feel a little better now.
I am hoping that things will improve next week. Having a bad week at the office is something that doesn't need to occur more frequently than once in a blue moon, if you ask me.

 

I hate seeing the trees cut down...I had a neighbor that was always cutting trees down in the woods behind her. If she didn't like them, crooked or bugs around them...down they came..It made me sick knowing how long they took to grow...one time she even put some poison in one of our trees and she was told right out not to let it happen again..I don't like using poison and it was on our property..

I am happy your M I L is out of the hospital....hopefully she will be back to better health soon.

I love your story of your events...the good, the bad and the ugly...the good part is that you servived and life goes on....You did have me chuckling when you stepped out of bed...I think that happens to everyone with pets.

 

Oh my gosh...the trees!! Why was it that the city council wanted 100 tree's cut down?? Were they diseased? It so reminds me of my sadness when my own neighbor cleared hundreds of trees from his property surrounding us. It made me so mad because there was no good reason for it. I'm afraid there are many Tree Haters (as I call them) around here.
I'm glad your MIL is home again and feeling better.
As for the cat barf, I'm afraid that has happened to me too so I know EXACTLY how you felt. In my case it wasn't a Clematis I'd been babying but pieces of my Asparagus Fern. YUCK!
I hope your week improves Sjoerd.

 

I feel sorry for your trees. They've been growing for so many years, and *poof* gone! Stupid council.

I also hope your clematis will survive the rather harsh Roos-treatment, and I'm happy your m-i-l is back from hospital. I hope she'll get to stay well now. Sorry about that saw-toothed edge of the photos. I understand completely how you feel.

You've really had a rotten few days, haven't you?

We can trade places, you know. All I've got here is somewhere between half a meter and one meter of snow on the ground, with more forecast.

 

Ohh poor you! I do honestly mean that. Been there, and had same reaction.

your poor trees and i know the beauty that is lost is one that will take forever to grow back. (hopefully they will replace)

I am glad your m-i-l is better. I just hate it when anyone in the family gets sick, the worry and all, but am glad she is out of the hospitol and back home.

You know i can lend you a knife i carried all summer waiting for my veggies to harvest. Almost became a skinning knife. Might work great! lol. I think Roos might have to keep a low profile for a while.

But just think, it has to get better right! Right! It will. Think positive Sjoerd and keep smiling right on thru it all. (I really need to take my own advise,,lol)

 

I think it's the end of winter blues getting everyone down in the dumps and making us get upset at the small things that we normally would just pass off or over and go on to something else. I bet you will sure miss those trees when the summer sun is shining down bright and I'd be very upset over it, too. The company that trims branches out of the electric lines here just zip the trees down one side or zip the tops off and they look very ugly. Why don't they take the trees out or just trim around the wires? They put time over anything else and ugly is okay with them. I would not plant under the wires and give them the opportunity to ruin the trees. Well, I will not go there either. I hope you are feeling very much better and will soon be hard at work on your lottie.
dooley

 

all i can do is send you a bunch of hugs sjoerd...i've been there and done that, too! you're not alone!

 

Oh my - what stuff you've had this week. So sad to see the trees go. Totally changed the looks of your neighborhood. Cats - I have two, very old, love them to death but when they are gone, no more. Well, maybe one outside. Now do you know why I post so much of my puppies?

So glad your m-i-l is better. That can be frustrating for sure.

Think of it this way Sjoerd, next week puts us one week closer to spring!

 

Sjoerd,I am sorry about all the trees.I'm sure it made you ill.It could have been worse.You could have steped in your plant upchuck that same morning your trees came down now that would have been worse as Roos made it out alive :-D as to not having a tomb stone where the shades use to be.I hope your weeks ahead is lots better.Sorry about your book.

 

EILEEN--I don't know what the council's real agenda is because the proposed work and the number of trees cut down do not jive at all.
But you are right--we DO need trees--alive.

What a dreadful story about your neighbour poisining your tree, SHERRY. I can't believe that she didn't get a fine and some hours of community service at the minium.
Hahaha You and Eileen liked that cat barf bit, eh? I can see the humor in that too. But the Clematis 'pruning', is not as funny.

NETTY--Thanks for your condolences. They are planning to re-work the street and bike paths; however, removing so many trees is excessive if you look at the plans.
I know that you know exactly how I feel, having lost the fern. That darn cat o' mine!

Thanks DROOPY--It was difficult to watch them sawing the trees down one after the other.

Thanks BIITA--Thanks for the offer of a knife. Is it one like Crocodile Dundee carried?
I'm thinking positive.

DOOLEY--I know what you mean about the electrical companies cutting the trees near the electrical lines. We have no lines above ground here, thank goodness.

Thanks for the hugs, BUNKIE--they are well appreciated.

Yes N'PAWS--It has changed how the neighbour looks very much.
I like your positive thoughts.

Chuckle...TONI--I think that you are right about the nap.
Thanks for your support.

Thanks GLENDA--here's hoping that next week will be a better one.

 

Oh no, oh no, oh no.... the trees... I just about CRIED to think of all those lovely trees being cut. I'll bet you did too. Why in the world have they done that? You showed great restraint by not doing something drastic as I would have been sooo tempted...

When I looked at the first picture, I gasped -- my street is lined with very old sycamores too... and over the years we have lost one and then another to some hurricanes and whatnot. But to have the city just cut them down so heartlessly... Very hard to accept. The pictures were almost too difficult to look at.

That said, I'm glad your mom-in-law is well and home.

Sorry about the cat barf, but I really did have to laugh at that one...

EXCEPT I could imagine the feeling as you realized what you were about to discover. Oh that cat... Tell her she is on thin ice.... (That's what I say to Austin. In the summer I rooted an avocado and Austin at it TWICE...) Again, you showed restraint, or did you?

So sorry about that rotten week... I sure hope it gets better. But look! It's close to Friday where you are! TGIF!

 

Sending you happy thoughts after such a tramatic week...so sad about the trees, and the book also.

Things will hopefully take a turn now for the better. Soon the cold will go and playing the the dirt always fixes most things for me. Maybe you should treat yourself to another clematis to help encourage the heavily pruned one to recover

 

So DAISY--you sound almost as bad as feel. --chuckle--
Well, I didn't know whether to cry and go blind with rage. It was one of those situations where one can only stand-by helplessly as witness to a great injustice.
The feeling of total helplessness was the worse thing, because there was no where to go with the anger..so it sort of doubles back on one and becomes then, ten-fold.
Sure, as I watched it happen I sort of fantasized about things I could do to those workers, but it wasn't their fault--they were just doing their jobs. The most that I could hold them accountable for was not having the backbone to stand up to their bosses and refuse to do it. It's totally unrealistic and I only personally know of two people that would have done just that. But I would have applauded and respected them had they done that.
Giving up a job because of one's principles is not something that everyone would want to do, or could do for that matter-- because of financial responsibilities or other factors.
Yeah, the barf episode was a funny one alright (afterwards).
Yes, I shall tell Roos that she is on thin ice...and I am the man with the pick!
Of course I showed restraint...but you know that every person has a rope attached and every rope has an end.

Thank you so much JEWELL-- I really appreciate that.
I think you may have something there about the Clematis. I may well a replacement or six.
Capital idea.