The tree that has bugged the dickens out of me in the back yard of the house behind me, well, it has come down.  It was huge, and dead--by far one of the tallest trees in Edmond--leaning towards my house.  Every time we had a wind storm--which is at least once a week in Oklahoma--I was sure it would fall.  It took three men five or six days working full time to get it down.

I spent many a day praying that it wouldn't fall on my house, especially on the days that the wind got above fifty miles an hour.  Which was often.  The man who owned the house died, and his estate was a mess.  Nobody had the authority to take the tree down for months and months.

One less thing to worry about.  I'm thankful it is gone.  When you plant a tree in a developed community, you don't think about the end of that tree's life--when it dies.  This tree probably cost less than $25.00 to plant it in the ground.  But the bill for taking it down was huge--a couple of thousand.  I had gotten an estimate on taking it down, and was almost to the point I was ready to pay someone to take it down myself.  It would have been cheaper than the deductible (on my insurance) to repair the damage it would have caused to my house.  But I couldn't legally do it.  Another man's property--well, another dead man's property.

Not even considering it could have killed someone.

It was one of those "Your hands are tied," moments.

I'm breathing better.  Sometimes you have to take your troubles to the Lord, and leave them there.

This was one of those times.  And most days I did.  Leave them there.  I decided that the worst thing that could happen was that it would crush the NW corner of my house and destroy my bedroom and bath, or kill me in the night while I was asleep.  Either way, everything would end up all right.  I would hire someone to fix the house, or I would go to heaven.  One or the other.

After that, I slept well.