Truck, tree and me

A couple weeks ago, when I was home with Lydia, I was walking her home from the grocery store. Someone on the corner asked when the next #30 bus was - it turned out that it would be a while.

There was a garbage truck right in front of my house, picking up my trash (thank you, city Department of General Services). Heading in the opposite way was a tractor trailer from Eckerd's Drug Store. The courteous truck driver moves somewhat to his right to give the garbage truck (and himself) more room. And the cliche proved to be correct - his good deed did not go unpunished.

A low-hanging branch gets caught, actually wedged, between the cab and the trailer, and the strength of the truck actually dislodges the tree from its roots! The moving tree pulled out the cable TV line from the nearby house.

So when I get home - I was only a block away when this occurred - there's a garbage truck stopped in one direction and the drug store truck stuck in the other, right in front of my house. The garbage truck guy calls DGS and they show up with about 12 guys, assessing the situation. They bring chainsaws, a couple wood chippers and other paraphenalia.

The truck driver had a camera, for which he wanted to take pictures to show to the powers that be at Eckerd's but it wasn't working, so I, accompanied by my photo assistant Lydia, took pictures, which I subsequently mailed to the company.

Eventually, the police arrive, take the truck driver's statement. What they WEREN'T doing, though, was noting that traffic coming down my street heading north couldn't get through even to the side street, mostly because a CDTA bus was stopped. The bus wasn't allowed to back up and couldn't make a right turn because one of the wood chippers was in the way. So, I took Lydia ad directed traffic, which is to say, I got a bunch of people to turn around and go back the other way, lest they be parked there for what would have been up to 40 minutes.

Finally, some CDTA supervisor arrives on the scene, gets the DGS to move the chipper, and allow for traffic, including the stopped bus, to turn off the street.

All that's left.
Carol and I had complained that those branches were too low. Guess we were right.
Oh, and Eckerd sent me a $40 Eckerd card to pay for my expenses, which seemed fair.