Life: Idiotropic

Today Valencia experiences its strongest winds in over 20 years.  The city asked people to stay indoors to protect themselves from falling objects.  A huge metal sign fell 10 stories and crushed a car below.  City parks were closed.  The A-7 (autobahn/highway) was rerouted at several points including our exit in Puzol.  And trees fell.  A lot of trees fell. 

When I came home today from a coffee with friends I walked through that little gate and this big tree was still standing, but barely.  The wind was so strong, it was difficult to walk, the tree leaned and the ground was already coming up around it.  I walked around the other side of the tree to reach my front door worried it would fall on me.  An hour later I took this photo from my front door.  And this evening my landlord and his wife came to chop it into bits.  We love this tree.  It framed our door nicely, provided shade, and was just a very nice tree.  Kirk even liked it.  It is the tree I posed with for my profile photo on this blog.  I like it. 

So now we're mourning it's loss.  The girls came home, climbed and jumped on it, and picked off the browning seed pods that were too high to get before.  It will be replaced with a bush.  :(  Not the same. 

Thankfully our spirits were cheered with the always hilarious auditions for "American Idol" that we all watched tonight.   Good bye, tree.  I salute you with my version of tonight's hit song... "tree on the ground.  Tree on the ground.  Lookin' like a fool with your tree on the ground.