The tree that was alive, then dead, then alive again, is now officially and sadly dead. I wrote a nice, long essay about it and how it made it into our backyard, but after a number of storms that kept uprooting it and its movement because of a pool we put in, it gave up the ghost. Too much trauma, soil that’s mostly clay, and who knows what else, did it in. It fell over and basically laid in the backyard while I tried to wish it back to life (spoiler alert: it didn’t work).
This past weekend, I went on a “work retreat,” where I sequestered myself at a hotel so as to avoid any distractions and tried to get through as much work as possible. And on Saturday night, my husband came by with pizza and present. I had asked him to move the tree out to the front curb for pick-up since it had become extremely clear that there wasn’t any life left to bring back.
But he didn’t just put it out. Instead, he went at it with a saw, and he cut off a piece of the trunk, proving just how dead it was, and creating a small pen stand for me. He hollowed two grooves and then hit Staples and got me a new Cross ballpoint pen. As you can see, it’s quite pretty, and while I’m sad that it’s no longer in the backyard, now it’s on my desk…and maybe the next tree will have better luck in the backyard.
