Saturday and Sunday Sadnesses, None Extreme

--I left the house on Saturday morning as the tree/landscaping guys arrived.  We are in that state mid-project where everything looks worse than it was and worse than it will look.  I've lost track of the vision, and I'm feeling like we'll never be done with this project.  There's dirt everywhere, both inside the house and outside.

--I got home in the afternoon to a scene of devastation--branches everywhere across the front yard, trees shorn of most of their canopy.  The house feels exposed, although if I was seeing it for the first time, I wouldn't see it as devastated.

--The trees are gumbo limbo trees, which will grow back very quickly.  They had been leafy and very full, which is great for shade, but could be falling-over-dreadful with a rain-heavy storm.

--We really should trim them once or twice a year--then the change wouldn't seem so extreme.

--As I worked on grading a project for my online class, I heard that Caroline See had died.  She was 82, but the news still made me sad.  I loved her book reviews in The Washington Post.  I read many of her books, but my favorite was her writing advice book, Making a Literary Life:  Advice for Writers and Other Dreamers.  I bought it at the now-defunct Borders, back when I was an adjunct, counting every penny.  I never regretted that purchase.

--Today is the last day of ukulele lessons, dinner, and sing-along at the parsonage.  I'll miss this group, even as I understand why we can't continue at this once a week pace.

--I could really use another few days to recover from last week--but let me go forward, hoping that