Measurement

We had some startling and problematic snow up here right before Halloween.  Huge power outages, chaos everywhere, the whole nine yards...the heavy snow on the still be-leaved trees wreaked absolute havoc and pulled branches down all over the place.  The power was out at my house when I came home from the hockey, and stayed off for much of the next day.  I went over to my parents' house, which is apparently some kind of impenetrable fortress and/or has Doc Ock's fusion reactor in the basement.  When I pulled up, I saw this:

That is the damaged remains of the dogwood tree my parents planted when we first moved to Worcester when I was just six months old.  I had to sit in my car for a while just to compose myself, and I was struck by how powerful my response to this scene was.  I thought of all the times Mom and Dad had sent us out to shake the tree in the fall and how many neighborhood bikes had been dumped under it and how many swerve moves I'd run around it on my way to wherever...it's funny how things you don't always think would be so important really are.

Goodbye, tree.