A Good Attitude Helps

I got a call from the school district maintenance services guy this morning and he said that the way the law is and his insurance coverage is that I am responsible for the part of the tree on my property.

I told him that I have been through sufficient hurricanes to know that and I guess that I had a job to get started on.

I started cutting branches and tossing them over the fence into the school yard.  I figured it made no difference whether the county picked them up there or in the street and the schoolyard was sure a lot closer.

Shortly after I started the guy I talked with on the phone earlier showed up.  I told him what I was doing and he said that actually there was a difference with where the branches were.  On the schoolyard it is the school districts responsibility.  On the street it is the county commissioners responsibility (and budget).  He could have made me move the branches out front.  Instead he said that as he was walking over to me he was thinking that he was going to help me out any way he could because of my positive attitude.  He said I could put the branches in the schoolyard and if the trunk was too thick for my chainsaw he would let his guys cut it for me.

When he left he thanked me for my attitude.  I also thanked him for his.  He said that I wouldn’t believe some of the people he had to deal with.

Now I’ve got all of the tree out of the yard with the branches and trunk cut up and in the school yard.

The work of cutting up the tree was a good dry run for hurricane season.  It also showed me that my stamina is better than it has been.  (I need to start walking again before I lose that)  I also don’t have sore thumbs after that work.  I would have been in a lot of pain in the past… and I was rewarded, in a way, for having a good attitude.