A worker who was pruning a pine tree had to be rescued after getting stuck 50 feet off the ground in Ventura County on Saturday. The rescue occurred in the 800 block of Crest Drive in Westlake wher…
They cut down the old oak tree today. It was an enormous tree. One of the biggest I’ve ever seen.
I was on my walking route when I heard the chainsaws running. I stood by the curb and watched the young worker crawl up the trunk and take it down from top to bottom.
They scaled it like trapeze artists, swinging from limbs with chainsaws strapped over their shoulders.
There was an old man by the street, with his dog on a leash. He was watching. He was stock still.
“That tree’s been here a long time,” he said. “It was here since my parents were babies.”
“You know this tree?”
He nodded. “My mother grew up beneath that tree. She rocked me to sleep underneath that tree when I was born. We used to live in this house. A long, long time ago.”
“Really?”
Another nod. “Used to sit underneath that tree with my grandparents. They used to visit us all the time. My granddaddy showed me how to polish my own shoes under that tree. Do kids still polish their shoes?”
“No, sir. I don’t think they do.”
He smiles mournfully. “Well, we used to. My granddaddy was a World-War-I guy, kept his shoes polished to a mirror finish. He’s dead now.”
The old man sighed.
“Granddaddy only came to one of my baseball games in his whole life, because he grew up in Walker County. He was from the country. He grew up hard, he didn’t even know how baseball was played.”
The top of the tree fell. The green wood cracked loudly. And I could not help but feel like the world was losing something important.
The young treemen were attacking the fallen logs with chainsaws as though the logs had insulted their mother.
“A rope swing used to hang on that tree,” said the old man. My mom used to swing on it. My last memory of her is swinging on that swing before she died.”
“How’d she die?”
“Pneumonia. Always had lung problems. The pneumonia finally took her.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Yeah. Long time ago.”
Another section of the mighty oak fell. The old man winced when the enormous trunk hit the earth with a hard impact.
I am perplexed why homeowners in Birmingham are always cutting down enormous, 150-year-old, healthy trees. Is it an aesthetic thing? Do some people just hate trees? If so, maybe these people should consider moving to, say, the Sahara desert.
This month alone, I have counted five gigantic local trees that have been cut down. It makes no sense.
“When I was in high school,” he said, “my date met me beneath that tree.”
“Is that right?”
“She was from a rich family. I was kinda poor. I was so nervous. I wore a hand painted tie, and my shoes were shined up good.”
The young men cut another section of the tree. The tree was only half stature now.
“I treated my date like she was the queen of England herself. She wore a white dress, with all sorts of pink flowers on it. I gave her a corsage. I put in on her. She put one on me. We felt so grown up. So adult.”
“How did the prom go?”
He smiled. “I married her.”
“You have any kids?”
“Three. I used to take them for walks to see this tree.”
Finally the owner of the home approached us. He was a young man. He came out of his home, wearing an asymmetrical modern haircut. He wore modern clothes.
He saw us standing by the curb, and he evidently didn’t like us standing there.
“Can I help you?” said the owner.
“Why are you cutting down that old tree?” said the old man gently.
The young man looked at the old man with a smirk. The young man was either amused by this question, or really ticked off. It was hard to tell which.
“I cut this tree down because it’s mine,” the young man spat. “I can do whatever I want. It’s my [expletive] house.”
The old man nodded. He smiled politely. He apologized for making the kid so angry.
The young man cordially asked us to get off his lawn.
I saw the old man walk away with his dog. But he looked shorter, somehow.
Today we got a strange call of a found prosthetic leg at a Cloverdale lumber yard. The deputy gathered the intact leg, checked the area and contacted some folks at the nearby airport.
Turns out that an amputee went skydiving yesterday and his leg fell off in mid-flight from about 10,000 feet up. After they landed, he and friends looked around the area but couldn’t find it.
We contacted Dion and were able to return his leg this afternoon. Great guy, full of humor who said he lost his first leg in a freak skydiving accident two years ago but that hasn’t held him back. He jokingly quipped that this was his second leg lost while skydiving..
He was thankful to get his $15k leg back and was even more thankful it didn’t land on anyone or break anything. He promises to make a tether and learn from this but fully plans to stick with his passion. Good luck Dion!! Great spirit!!!
This AB/Bud Light fiasco is truly fascinating to me. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and a truly intelligent person is capable of identifying and understanding (but not necessarily agreeing with) as many different perspectives for any given situation or issue as possible before formulating and expressing that opinion openly. Similarly, after establishing a position on any given situation or issue, the intelligent individual will continuously include new opinions/perspectives into the equation which governs their own opinion, ever-willing to adjust or change it entirely if the evidence and a thorough assessment of the facts call for doing so.
I feel like Bud Light clearly underestimated how their decision to support a popular, transgender TikTok star would play out with some of their more right leaning customers. I also believe that it is fair to say that they perhaps should have picked a different influencer, with an identity and whose content is less polarizing. But hindsight is 20/20 and I, personally, don't believe there was anything wrong with Bud Light choosing to use Devin Mulaney to help promote their product. I do, however, believe that it would have been a bit "too much" to distrubute Bud Light in cans featuring "pronouns," which they initially planned to do to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community.
As a normal heterosexual man, I accept anyone and support anyone on this planet who is pursuing and wishing to achieve acceptance, equality and happiness, so long as they do not cause me or my life any harm or disruption. If you want to be a man and wear woman's clothing and identity as a woman, or if you want to call yourself "non-binary," or maybe you want to identify as a cat (see link below for that story), then I think you should be free to do so. But I also believe that there are only TWO genders and, whichever one you were at birth, is the one that you truly are biologically, regardless of how many surgeries or hormone infusions you've had. But this does not mean someone should be prevented from being allowed to "identitfy" as a different gender because the stark reality is that only that person has the ability to state how they "identify" and the list of nouns and pronouns which they can identify as is limitless .This facet of sexuality is purely psychological and no one should have control over how another person chooses to think, especially if those thoughts typically do not harm others.
I think that Bud Light really epically f!ucked up in every single way. In addition to upsetting a huge number of customers, after receiving backlash for supporting Devin Mulaney, they issued a press release which illustrated momentous back pedaling, failing to stand by their decision to support the transgender star. So now the entire LGBTQ+ community wants nothing to do with them or their product either.
Simultaneously, you have brands like Target getting boycotted for their absurd line of transgender clothing and children's queer literature. That's where I have to take a stand, because I don't think it's necessary to have products of that nature, or market such ideas to children who don't even yet fully nor adequately comprehend what sexuality actual is or how it affects them.
And then you have Kid Rock who posted a video of himself spraying assault rifle rounds into cases of Bud Light. Um...why you so mad, guy? You're literally going ballistic on Instagram because a transgender person who got paid to promote a product...promoted the product? And this person, who is minding their own business, oblivious to your posh existence, and who perhaps has some beliefs and behaviors you don't fully understand, has caused you to promote gun violence against four cardboard carry cases of inanimate, watered down light beer? "F!ck Bud Light and F!ck Anheiser Busch," he concluded. Okay, guy...
Just like anyone else, Kid Rock is entitled to his opinion. I actually like Kid Rock because of the massive amount of effort and money and programs he has put forth to help the struggling city of Detroit and the people in it. But for a guy who sings half of his songs about 'being himself,' about 'doing whatever he wants,' and "not letting anyone stop him," he certainly appears to struggle with letting others enjoy that same luxury.
I'm not going to reread and edit this, so I apologize for any typos. Hopefully I haven't upset anyone. I tried to be civil, so if you disagree, don't hesitate to express yourself civilly. This is my opinion and I don't claim to know what is right in every situation. If you read my rant, then please treat yourself to a prize about the girl who, as far as she is concerned, is a cat and the support her school is giving her...allegedly haha
A number of politicians, including U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colorado) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia), have propagated similar claims as well.
@Nutball It's all probably a bunch of hyped up, politicized propaganda. A bunch of people have been talking about it, echoing the same claims and ad lib-ing new unique details in every new "report." It's entertaining for certain, but I'm skeptical. That isn't to say I don't beieve that there are actually infrequent cases scattered throughout the country of individuals taking the act of "identifying" as something too far. The whole "furries" concept is very, very real so, just like any good lie, it's built upon a crumbling foundation of truth. I haven't ever really known Joe Rogan to wildly speculate like that, at least not without being abundantly clear that the topic is either speculative or conspiratorial or theoretical in nature. A lot of his podcasts discuss topics which are void of any concrete evidence to support their existence or accuracy. And there's nothing wrong with that. Hypothesizing and the creation of theories are fundamental aspects of the scientific method. There are entire branches of science, math and learning and discovery which are completely or predominantly based on theories; unsubstantiated, but highly plausible, ideas and beliefs and equations which appear to direct us toward an answer, if not to be the answer itself. But let's leave the wild speculating for the suits on Wall Street, shall we? And it's no surprise to discover that a number of politicians might be full of sh!t. To some extent, they all are habitual liars. I've never be made aware of a single politician who kept all of his or her campaign promises.
Nutball, did you know that there are classrooms in America that have litter boxes in them so the kids that identify as cats feel accepted? I assume they are not actually used but only there to comfort. Is that the crazy thing you ever heard?
@vharrison I apologize if I'm missing something, but I can't tell if you're being facetious, sarcastic or if you overlooked the fact that my last two messages from only hours before yours made mention of that same exact bizarre claim of people taking their "identities" way too far.
I specifically made mention of the litter box/kids identifying as cats nonsense in the message just above yours on this page and in the one two messages before that on the very bottom of the previous page. I just like to make sure I understand people correctly.
Knotorious, not sarcastic or facetious, just when Nutball asked since when did cats go to school, I thought I would share the tibit about the litter boxes.
But if Wikipedia says it is not true, then it must not be lol. If it was a hoax, I mean who thinks this stuff up 😳
At least 20 Republican politicians have claimed that schools are making accommodations for students who identify as cats. The school districts say these claims are untrue.
Knotorious, not sarcastic or facetious, just when Nutball asked since when did cats go to school, I thought I would share the tibit about the litter boxes.
But if Wikipedia says it is not true, then it must not be lol. If it was a hoax, I mean who thinks this stuff up 😳
No worries! I completely understand! I hope I didn't come across as rude, I simply wanted to make sure I understood you correctly. I don't like to assume wherever and whenever possible. Thank you for the clarification!
Going back to this hoax, I think it's pretty egregious that so many politicians and public figures would make such a huge mistake by spreading misinformation which could have easily been fact-checked by any one of them with their endless campaign resources and the private "donations" they have receieved from special interest groups. It not only highlights laziness, but it demonstrates how a clique of similarly minded people can be more than willing to perpetuate a lie if it helps their political agendas. The surprising part is not that these politicians/influencers would lie to their viewers, but that they appeared to have little interest in protecting their reputations.
Once the truth was inevitably uncovered by whoever dared to question what these people were saying, which was one or two people after hundreds of thousands of people had accepted it as being factual, they were made to look like fools. But the reason this never mattered is because the story about the countless politicians and influencers who lied to the world and knowingly failed to do their due diligence will NEVER be a big story. Meanwhile, the lie about schools and litterboxes will remain widely spread by countless news outlets and high profile personalities for the foreseeable future.
I can't help but look at the United States from time to time and think, "this country is going to shit."
Space lasers of the jews anyone? How about Hillary raping and eating kids in a pizza joint? Maybe that the election was stolen? Mexico paying for a wall? Republican politicians today make me miss Bush.
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