Where I live the winds weren't as bad as in southern California the last few days. However, it was enough to dislodge a big acacia tree next door and send it quietly during Friday night against our house. It was so quiet we didn't know it had happened until I noticed while getting out of my hot tub that the branches were too close to our house. It slowly must have landed between our bedroom and our bathroom(good karma I guess. It was slowed down by a little pine tree that I noticed the branches of through the stain glass window in our shower area this morning. However, as I went about my business for the day I forgot to check that one thing. So, it was a very rude awakening to find a 1 to 1 1/2 foot through wide at the base acacia tree up against our house. Luckily, we have an extremely well built home specially reinforced for permanent cement tile roofing all over the 3 bedrooms and three bathrooms and a very large 2 car garage. I didn't see any damage at all at first to the house so I proceeded to get my 100 foot electrical cord to start to trim away larger branches to reduce the weight against the house with my pole saw which is an extendable about 1 horsepower electric chain saw at the end of a pole with a trigger at the very bottom end of the pole. I didn't feel that safe on the roof because after all I'm now 65 and not as steady as I used to be on the roof. So, I had to be very careful up there even though I'm usually very good and safe on ladders and roofs because I was trained by my father starting about 12 to be an electrician's helper. So, I got used to going up summers up to 40 feet high on ladders especially wiring warehouses in the San Fernando Valley with my Dad learning the electrical trade during the summers when I was off school. By age 18 or 20 I could completely wire anything just with an electrical architectural plan that I could follow from scratch. So, it was nice to have one trade (electrician's helper) accomplished by age 18. Though I wasn't a journeyman electrician I still found I could wire or repair anything in a home or business that I found ever since. So, even though I eventually became a computer programmer and began owning businesses by age 28 it gave me a good start in being around men in the trades which was then sort of like being in a war at times at least psychologically speaking. But, I learned to be a man always of my word because the alternative was to be beat up by other construction workers if you did anything else. Later, much to my dismay I found working in an office anywhere this was not true. So, I avoided always working in an office unless it was my own business because I couldn't deal with people lying to me because of my experience with the building trades where not being completely truthful would one's get teeth knocked out or worse (at least in the 1960s).
So anyway, I'm up on the roof and removed about 300 to 500 pounds of limbs from the tree from the roof where I wouldn't get hit with them falling on me. Later, after I did this I went underneath the tree which was sort of like suspended on limbs (springs) against my house I trimmed some more. But, one of them got loose and almost broke my arm when the butt of the limb after being cut hit my elbow while on it's way to the ground. This limb was about 50 to 100 pounds and I decided I had done enough work on the tree. Luckily, when it hit my elbow it was outstretched and only hit a glancing blow so though it felt like my arm (elbow) had been broken it only felt like that for a moment.
However, the concussion hurt my arm from my elbow up to my shoulder so eventually my wife convinced me to take an Advil. So, this morning I woke up with my arm not hurting at all. Normally, I will refuse to take any pain medication because it isn't good for your mind and body long term to do that. Just like alcohol isn't the best for you unless it is a glass of wine a once or more a week with dinner because of the reservatrol in the grapes which might be helpful if the wine is organic without additives. A friend of ours at Bugay Winery makes a completely organic wine with no harmful additives that I noticed leaves no headache or hangover the next day which is a good way to go if you can afford to buy organic wine at places like expensive French Restaurants and the wine cases at Whole Foods and places like that or online.
IT was drizzling this morning and even though the homeowner next door is liable to pay for this tree I still felt I took away limbs and leaves that would gather water weight against my house to keep it from breaking through the wood siding and roof of my home until professional younger men who do this for a living hopefully get it down without doing more damage.
Note: I was realizing later also that one reason you don't want to be taking pain killers while doing things that need extreme coordination like being up high on ladders and such where you have to hook one arm or leg through the rungs of a ladder so you don't fall 10 to 40 feet. When you have to have peak coordination just to stay alive on a job you don't want to be taking pain killers that might take away your edge to survive what you are doing.
Not everyone should be up on a ladder either. Unless you are trained for it just remember ladders and axes around homes put more people in the hospital or kill them than any other tools around the home.
I remember when I first got together with my present wife and it was 1994 or early 1995 that winter. Water started coming out of the wall of her home suddenly like a fountain and we realized the flooding rain had filled her flat roof like a lake. So, in a downpour I knew I had to climb up on the roof to save the house from more damage. A friend was visiting who was a teacher who had no experience at all on ladders and I told him not to try to climb in the rain. I took my shoes off so I could feel every rung with my feet and toes so I wouldn't fall in the slippery flooding rain and climbed up the metal ladder and onto the flat roof where it was flooding and waded through about a foot or more of water to clear the roof drain. However, my friend in his enthusiasm climbed in dress brown shoes and slipped upside down and fell so I told him to stay on the ground and to stay safe while I cleared the drain of leaves. Later I bought chicken wire and built a cage to prevent leaves from fouling the drain again and causing flooding in the house downstairs.
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