News from the garage: August 22
Today an arborist scaled the majestic pine on the corner of Chelsea Drive and Shamrock Road. A series of ropes and knots held him high as he dismembered the tree from top to bottom. He scaled it a second time to deconstruct the trunk in six-foot chunks. Finally, the gaunt, pony-tailed dude hopped to the ground, but the pine’s remains still stood one story in the air. His crew wrapped a noose around it’s neck and they heaved and hoed and it cracked at the base. As the tree timbered down, it dominoed into a parking sign, which also snapped at its base. It was a small one detailing towing probabilities and hours of enforcement. Each man in the tree team settled into a wide stance and laughed and laughed. I tried to score some firewood from the scene, but one of the rope handlers told me that I’d need to split it, and I’d need an ax to do it. Does anyone on Chelsea Drive have an ax?
It’s one of those days, down at the fancy bank in town. The manager strolled the floor. His hand grazed many backs and when there was no one left to touch, he spun a three-sixty on his wing-tips and veered into the corner office. I waited fifteen minutes, and he finally came out to graze my shoulder and invited me to sit at his desk. I updated my account and made to leave. But first he told me, “It’s one of those days. I’m popping Sudafed like candy and I’ve drunk enough cold medicine to kill a small child.” What is one of those days anyways?
Southeast of Charlottesville, in Newport News, VA, a smoky flavor has tinged the air for the past several weeks. I first took the odor as an ad for a local barbecue festival. Actually, the seasoned air is drifting north from a fire raging in the Dismal Swamp. In the Tidewater area, life has become one serious BBQ party.
