My Tree and THE 2013 Job Change

June and July of 2013 was quite a whirlwind. The submarine I was on has quite an active group on Facebook. I posted on there in June of 2013 that I wanted to make a change. A shipmate I never met and who had served on the Bergall 10 years before I did told me to send him a resume for a project they were staffing up in Kentucky. I sent him a resume on 9 June 2013. I got a call from a recruiter from the company on 11 June 2013 about a project they were staffing up in South Africa. My future boss contacted me to have a Skype interview on 14 June 2013. The following week I was in New York for my nephews bar mitzvah and was finishing up the interviews while I was with family. I will probably go into more detail on the interviewing process in the future. In the meantime I was offered a position and accepted it on 21 June 2013.

The following Monday I gave my notice that 5 July 2013 would be my last day. My start date with the new company was 8 July 2013 and I would be on a plane heading to South Africa on 24 July 2013. So a pretty whirlwind month for sure.

The first order of business was to prepare the house. I arranged with one neighbor that he would mow my lawn and another neighbor would check the house regularly and bring in the mail. I began filling the car and motorcycle with ethanol free gas so that they would be prepared to sit for several months. The only looming issue I had left was the tree in front of my house.

When I bought the house in February of 2002, I looked at the tree and thought 'tree, one day I know you will give me trouble.' Up until about 2012 it was a great tree, it gave shade on the driveway in the afternoon. I took care of the tree, I had it trimmed every other year. It survived the 2005 hurricanes. It was a great tree.


Sometime in 2011 the tree must have been hit by lightning. I noticed it was not regaining as much leaves as it used too.


As you can see it was a big tree and my neighbor parked his car under the branches. I knew I could not in good conscious leave the tree like that and be away from home for so long. On 11 July McCoombs Tree Service came to remove it. It was a very bittersweet day to have the tree cut down. Although I did not climb the tree, swing from her branches, or gather apples (it was an oak) I did love the tree. When it was lush it made the house look good. It provided shade and a place for song birds (who pooped on the sidewalk).

Here are photos of the removal and what the house looked like without it. Of course my old Bergall shipmates made sure to point out how much better the house would look if only I had a nice tree in the front yard.











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