Another One Of My Comical Mini-manifestos

 

You have to wait for things to rot before you come in with your ax.  A huge oak tree was struck by lightning in a vacant lot behind the house.  There was a protracted ordeal, and eventually, the  aforementioned axium popped into thought.   

Pre--lightning incident, I had cleared a bicycle path from my back door to the winding steep alley two hundred fifty feet down from the littered, sloping vacant lot. Post-giant spark, one half of the unfortunate tree crashed the length of my bicycle path.   There were huge branches obstructing me and my bicycle.   Tree crap removal was long and arduous.

Right off the bat, I destroyed a chain saw.  It was puny.  Okay for annoying sumac trees diameter of a closet pole, but unsuited to the Paul Bunyan act I was looking at..  The hatchet was no good, mainly because my arms go out after ten minutes.   There were alternate bicycle path options, and they all were contiguous with bountious fronds of  poison ivy and smashed beer bottles.   People  love winging the things out of cars and into the vacant lot.  People also enjoy throwing their broken flat screen televisions out of moving cars. I could get a bike through the lot, but it was Tarzan-like.

It took years for the tree detritus to partially decompose.  One georgous autumn it all reached it's nadir in resistance to me.   I was able to smash it up with an ax and drag it out of the way.   The bicycle path was back up to snuff.  I feel as though I was compensted for the last time I tried hacking it up with the ax, because if failed the first time, and worked the second.   Ego gratifation was acheived because ridiculously soft wood breaks easily.   It's like recovering lost machismo.  

Huge tree branches can impact your mobility.   One may be obliged to accomodate the obstruction, until such time as options land in your bag of tricks.  Behind the house it was natural decomposition that tossed me a few lucky baubles and bangles.  In other matters, other things have their natural way of spoiling, and being made obsolete.  

Waiting for it to rot may be a method in practical politics.   Could be a slow process of letting it society rot.   At which point one can clear one's path.  Your Schwinn will be unobstructed.