TIMBER!

Two things are on my mind.

Today the cottonwood tree next door is coming down.  It's more than a hundred feet tall and mostly dead.  Storms have threatened to put it on top of our carport or any of a dozen cars, or nearby houes, in the neighborhood.

I remember Sue, who first lived there.  We were eighteen.  Our houses were new -- I was about the have my first son.  We planted a five-foot stick in our front yard.  It was called a fruitless mulberry tree.  Not to be outdone, Sue planted her own stick -- the cottonwood whose funeral we are now attending.  Time does not stop.

The other thing -- I went through the drive-through at Starbucks to get an iced coffee -- love that hazelnut -- and thought about tipping.  A couple of years ago, some Starbucks kept a cup on the outside ledge.  Grateful customers dropped in change or a bill.

I understand that, on windy ways, they could not do that.  They don't set out tip cups at all, anymore.  Why is that?  Did people stop putting money?  Did it fall on the ground and get run over?  Did someone steal the thing?

I rail, regularly, at technology that threatens to obsolete me.  It's come to that.  Just pick up a phone.  Don't bother to get up from your chair.  The world is connected.  I wonder if we can phone in a tip to Starbucks?

Is it possible that, in a few months, the push of a button will bring down a tree?