Osage Orange

Outdoorguy asked if the deer was playing with an osage orange so I looked it up and this morning went to see if I could find it. Yes, I think that is what it is. 

I was holding it, exploring it, and a woman I've seen in the park a few times asked about it. We smelled it (it smelled sweet). We conversed. Would we have done so before Covid? I don't know. There are some people, like Karen's grandmother, who were comfortable approaching complete strangers. As a woman, she didn't seem threatening so she could talk with people and everyone knew her. 

I definitely have noticed more random strangers striking up conversations with me. I too behave as if the rules are different now. 

Around noon I opened up a package to find my friend's last will and testament. 

Feelings. 

I needed a plant. 

The events of the afternoon completely wiped all the rising grieving away. I went out to vacuum my neighbors' lawns. The one neighbor said he wanted to do it - he was very grateful to borrow my vacuum but he wanted to do the labor. Then he began doing our neighbor's lawn and she ran out and insisted on doing hers herself. With a need to do something and nothing to do, I began digging a hole. 

I dug a hole to remove the roots from the weed tree I had cut down and then immediately missed because it screened the view. It did need to go, because it would have grown to a hundred feet tall (I don't know how tall, I just know I've seen versions of that tree super high in the air). 

My neighbor saw I was digging a hole and I explained I was going to plant something and needed to get this tree's roots out. She came out with a tiny little hand-held saw and sawed the stump at the bottom and the two of us pulled on it and I no longer have a yard-long stump growing in my yard and she and I are very proud of ourselves. 

This began a game of "guess that root." Which root goes to which plant? Some go to the climbing hydrangea that I would like to keep. Some, somewhere, surely go to the tree. Oh look, that one, the one I just broke, that goes to the internet cable. 

Yeah. I broke the internet. 

I'm using my cellphone as a hotspot now. I'm sure I can do that for work tomorrow and hopefully they can fix it Tuesday morning. 

But I feel better.