Yesterday's Tree

Monday, May. 10, 2004 - 8:00 a.m.

Yesterday was one of the last days of my work. I help John organize the new comics that live in the storage area. They are removed from mailing boxes and placed into long white comics boxes, in order, so they can be found again.

Once a year, there's a big specialty show at which the comics stand an excellent chance of selling well. That show is coming up in a few weeks, and it's the last time we'll be attending as dealers.

When I was on a break, I stepped outside, and took a picture of the tree that is halfway down the block.

If it is possible for a person to be in love with a tree, then I guess this one has my heart.

It's very old and very huge, and yesterday when the wind was blowing, it was also very vocal. The air was filled with this beautiful enormous hissing roar, the likes of which I have not heard since I was hunkered down up in the woods of northern Idaho while I was Mrs. Michael Winderman some fifteen years ago.

There's been talk for a while of whether or not this tree is stable enough to withstand another long bad wet windy winter. It's showing signs of its age, it's making the sidewalks crack a little bit, and the owner of the properties around it are all living with the small possibility of waking up flat and dead.

When my grandfather died in 1981, one of the first things my grandmother did was have the walnut tree removed that he and my mother had planted in their backyard. That was the first tree I ever loved. I don't have pictures of that one anywhere, but I know that pictures do exist, so I'm not worried that it's lost to history.

And it's also the reason I love fresh walnuts.

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So I don't know what it is about this exact tree from yesterday.

Maybe I'm looking for a metaphor.

The job itself is going away. I did not quit, and I was not fired. Loyalty is very important to me. Unless you fuck with me in ways that are unacceptable, you're pretty much stuck with me. :-)

Come to think of it, I've outlasted every job I've ever had.

Hopefully that tree will be around for awhile longer, too.

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The wind has come up again today.

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Twenty-four years ago today, I was in San Francisco with my high school choir group, the Advanced Women's Choir of Yuba City High School, aka the ADVWCYCHS, under the direction of Dean Estabrook.

Just in case anybody's Googling, then hi there. Get in touch with me, for gosh sakes!

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