So this happened.

I *thought* I heard a noise outside last night but dismissed it as "maybe it's critters."

It wasn't critters. It was this large branch letting loose and falling. I guess it wasn't louder because it didn't hit anything on the way down; that's the only blessing of it - it was a branch out over my drive and yard and it just came down. I'm kind of baffled, though, seeing as (a) this is one of the trees I paid several thousand dollars to have trimmed back last fall and (b) we did not have wind or ANYTHING last night.

It is *very* large. The widest part is at least five inches in diameter. I cannot budge it; I tried. I do not own a chainsaw. (I briefly thought of trying to cut it up with my little folding Japanese saw that I use for trimming branches but I don't think that would work, and anyway, what do I do with the bits?)

So I called my secretary for guidance (she and her husband have rental properties). She gave me the number of a tree guy....in fact, I'm certain it's the guy I used before when I had to have the brush cleared from the alleyway. I called him. He can come out today, but "unless it's a real emergency" he had some jobs scheduled for this morning and he'd come this afternoon so I'm here for today I guess.

What I could do would be to do more of my piano practice (I did 20 minutes before opening the blinds and finding the tree) and maybe get the lawnmower out and do the backyard and as much of the front that doesn't have tree on it.

But yeah. Did not need this today. (Well, I would have needed it even less tomorrow, when my appointment is, but then it WOULD be enough of an emergency to say "Yes, I need this tree gone by noon" - my appointment is at 1:30 and the place is a half-hour away but I am going to leave EARLY in order to deal with the risk of getting lost going to an unfamiliar medical complex).

Another thing I didn't need: over the weekend, my dad apparently started having an allergic reaction to the Lasix his doctor put him on. About 30 seconds of websearching on my part revealed that people with sulfa allergies are extremely likely to be allergic to Lasix. My dad, like me, has an allergy to sulfa drugs; it is in his records. But I guess the doctor overlooked that? Or figured maybe the bad reaction wouldn't happen in this case? He should have warned them at least - my mom didn't realize it was allergy at first. (And the first nurse she called to ask didn't want to believe her that he was having a bad reaction). I guess he has an appointment today and I HOPE the result is he's put on a different med that won't cause those problems.

So anyway.

I have been reading on "The Hobbit" to try to de-track my mind from the Looming Procedure so I can sleep and it does seem to mostly help. I don't know if it's the fact that it's an adventure story, or the fact that it's familiar and it's a story from the "before times" when I didn't have to worry about junk going wrong in my stupid aging meatsack but at least it shuts my brain up enough I can sleep.

During the day, it's not quite so easy. If I were at work, I could work, but I can't do that until the tree is gone.

(And at this point I don't even know what I'm worried more about: the general anesthesia or what they might find once they get in there. Actually, yeah, it's that second. Doesn't help that the new health-news meme is apparently "OMG COLON CANCER IS SHOWING UP IN YOUNGER AND YOUNGER PEOPLE SO NOW YOU REALLY NEED TO START SCREENING AT 45" and like all these things there is NO context whatsoever given. They seem to *mostly* be blaming it on obesity but I've also seen some stories suggesting it's mostly an increase seen among those with a family history of it, or it could be people eating a highly-processed diet, or whatever. I'm STILL trying to tell myself that apparently the over all lifetime risk is about 5%, which is really still pretty darned low but....yeah.

I HAVE told myself that if I do indeed wind up having to have the scoping (which I assume I will) I am going to allow myself, after it is over, to spend $100-$120 on some totally ridiculous and indulgent thing for myself as a reward for going through something nasty. Not sure yet what that might be but I will probably know it when I see it)