1. LJ seems to be back. No, not leaving LJ. It is a polit...
1. LJ seems to be back. No, not leaving LJ. It is a political issue, and one close to my heart. The Russian bloggers' freedom of speech is more important to me than being able to get my LJ fix 24/7. Hope you stick around, too, but I definitely understand why some people are planning to move house.
2. Ups and downs and ups and downs with Mati. One thing about childhood is that young children believe that parents are all-mighty and can fix everything. I cannot fix what's wrong with him. But I am also happy that he is making some progress. It will be painful to see so many neurotypical kids around him in the daycare, because he is woefully behind, and it hurts.
3. TJ the tree whisperer has taken care of my trees. This is the amazing magical thing that happened here in the last 2.5 days. First of all, I have a house. I am first in five generations of my family to own a home, probably even longer than that, we do not know. It's been my childhood dream to coexist with trees (I don't quite get in what sense one can 'own' trees, forgive me, English-speaking readers*). My dream came true: on our lot, there are four mature trees and one immature tree. The mature trees have not been trimmed in many, many years and the dead branches were creating a hazard. In comes TJ the tree whisperer. He used to be an arborist at our university, and finally quit after twenty-something years because they've been cutting too many trees.
Yes. That's why he quit.
Did I mention I really like TJ?
I talked to him about my trees last year, and he gave me an estimate; I did not have the money then. He also told me an awful lot about my trees, trees in the area, trees at my university, etc.
I've been saving, so this summer I got a few competing bids from other people. They all wanted less money, but none of them talked about my trees, not even to name them, not even to say how beautiful they are.
Sure enough, I called TJ, and he took care of my trees. Tenderly. That's the right word for it.
He also told me that we have two young redbud trees that started up in the back yard, and in October he'll come back and help me with the back yard and help these newborn redbud trees. I had two volunteer trees there (probably also redbuds) when we bought the house in 2008, and the landscaping guy who came to 'clean up' for the sale just tore them out; he didn't even ask me about it, because he assumed I wanted them out. TJ assumed I wanted these trees to live.
He loves trees. I love trees.
I hope I didn't bore you with this :)
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* an astute reader PM'd me to ask if I meant to have a footnote about different languages expressing ownership differently. Yes, yes they do, by all means they do. I'll write a fresh entry about this tomorrow, k?
2. Ups and downs and ups and downs with Mati. One thing about childhood is that young children believe that parents are all-mighty and can fix everything. I cannot fix what's wrong with him. But I am also happy that he is making some progress. It will be painful to see so many neurotypical kids around him in the daycare, because he is woefully behind, and it hurts.
3. TJ the tree whisperer has taken care of my trees. This is the amazing magical thing that happened here in the last 2.5 days. First of all, I have a house. I am first in five generations of my family to own a home, probably even longer than that, we do not know. It's been my childhood dream to coexist with trees (I don't quite get in what sense one can 'own' trees, forgive me, English-speaking readers*). My dream came true: on our lot, there are four mature trees and one immature tree. The mature trees have not been trimmed in many, many years and the dead branches were creating a hazard. In comes TJ the tree whisperer. He used to be an arborist at our university, and finally quit after twenty-something years because they've been cutting too many trees.
Yes. That's why he quit.
Did I mention I really like TJ?
I talked to him about my trees last year, and he gave me an estimate; I did not have the money then. He also told me an awful lot about my trees, trees in the area, trees at my university, etc.
I've been saving, so this summer I got a few competing bids from other people. They all wanted less money, but none of them talked about my trees, not even to name them, not even to say how beautiful they are.
Sure enough, I called TJ, and he took care of my trees. Tenderly. That's the right word for it.
He also told me that we have two young redbud trees that started up in the back yard, and in October he'll come back and help me with the back yard and help these newborn redbud trees. I had two volunteer trees there (probably also redbuds) when we bought the house in 2008, and the landscaping guy who came to 'clean up' for the sale just tore them out; he didn't even ask me about it, because he assumed I wanted them out. TJ assumed I wanted these trees to live.
He loves trees. I love trees.
I hope I didn't bore you with this :)
-----------------------------------
* an astute reader PM'd me to ask if I meant to have a footnote about different languages expressing ownership differently. Yes, yes they do, by all means they do. I'll write a fresh entry about this tomorrow, k?
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