Yard Terror

        I dreamed I was awakened by the sounds of chopping in the back yard. As I stumbled past the front door, half asleep, I realized that I could see all the way to the road. The Juniper hedge was gone, the bushes along the walk were gone, the 40 foot Cypress, gone!

        I stopped and finished pulling my pants on before bursting outside. There were my trees, being fed into a chipper. The workers were unable to hear me over the noise and their ear protection. I made my way past huge flats full of small flowering plants. I went around the corner where a woman was pulling down the honeysuckle vine, cutting it away from the catio. Marvin was sitting by the door, howling at them, and when he spotted me he stepped out where I could see him fully and sat up, howling mournfully.

        “What’s going on here?” I demanded.

        “N is having this all ripped out and replacing everything with new plants.”

        “What! We haven’t talked about this. It’ll be years before new plants will be so lush. What was she thinking? I hope you have some twenty and forty foot trees coming.”

        “No, just some ice-plant and what you see in the driveway.

        I didn’t want to ask, fearing the answer. “Where is the ice-plant going?”

        “It’s replacing the ivy.”

        “No, no it isn’t. I won’t have that junk plant on the hill. There’s no purchase for it and it won’t protect the hill from rain, nor provide forage for the birds or shelter for the squirrels.”

        “It’s been paid for…”

        “Just stop, now, until I can talk to N.”

        I headed inside to call N at work. As I went by the front I wanted to weep at the juniper stubs that was all that remained of our thick green hedge.

        This is when I realized that I don’t have her new work number.

        I dreamed I was sitting in a restaurant with several of my co-workers. I was giving one of them a back rub when she leaned back against me and pulled my arms around her. Even though it was my dream that was completely unexpected. It was a very friendly hug, as in friendly not sexy, but still was so surprising that I woke up.

Ad astra per technica,

FF