Great Oak Tree Massacre

Sunday, after a long weekend of sitting around watching other people drink while not drinking all that much myself (other than Friday night), we get home with high hopes of doing NOTHING. Scavenging for food in the house, pajamas, sleep.

Instead, the Great Oak Tree Massacre (GOTM) was happening next door.

Most people on our street have the giant oak trees. Here is ours:
And during the hurricane, we were a smidge worried it would hurt our house and possibly our bodies, but we had just had it trimmed and it was fine. It dropped lots of leaves and twigs and such, but just fine.

The lady next door must have been way more afraid..

I get out of the car, holding Lola and my purse, and she comes running out. Lee says "what's going on?" and she says "After Ike, and just so scared. Can you move your car?"
Seriously? You really think another hurricane will hit Houston again this summer? The last one was 25 years ago.
So, where there used to be a nice, large, healthy tree with a fern planted at the base... is this...
If you look past this down the street, you see the other healthy, happy trees alive and well.

At least I can see my pretty pink inpatiens when I pull in the drive each day. They try to distract me from the GOTM.

Did I mention the 6 hours of chain-sawing we had to endure after we got home? And how we had to move our cars TWICE?

That lady owes me 6 hours of napping. Just saying.