Eucalyptus

This huge eucalyptus is growing across Los Alamos Road from where Wildwood Trail intersects with it. (Between the white car and the leaning telephone pole.) It might have multiple trunks, but it is hard to tell because it is the type of eucalyptus that has long strips of peeling bark hanging down. I'm not a huge fan of these trees because they contain so much oil that they burn like giant candles. They reportedly supplied 80% of the fuel for the Berkeley Hills fire in 1991. It doesn't seem to be very clear who owns it, or the property it is growing on, with the result that nobody does anything about maintaining it. 

An article in the paper this morning said that it is the California regulator that is putting the brakes on PG&E's plan to underground 2,000 miles of power lines, calling it 'too expensive.' I'm sure it's expensive, but Iso was the cost of reparations to the thousands of people who lost their homes to several utility caused fires. I'm equally sure that the cost of doing it will be passed along to the consumers. I'm all for undergrounding lines and think it is short sighted not to forge ahead with it despite the fact that I doubt if it will happen anytime soon on our street for the same reason the tree never gets trimmed. It still seems shortsighted not to invest the money into doing the thing that will provide 99% protection from electric line caused fires. 

On the other hand, we had a visit from our lovely neighbor, Karina, who was delivering more delicious baked goodies, and told us about PG&E cutting down the trees on the creek which is behind her house, and throwing all the branches in the creek. With the help of her next door neighbor Cindy, who had to foot the bill for clearing the creek of fire debris, she managed to get them to stop, telling them that she didn't authorize it. PG&E seems to play  a bit fast and loose with property boundaries and their liability. Neither one of us could think why they would cut down healthy trees that aren't anywhere near power lines and throw more debris into the creek. 

The delicious toffee she brought us, however, provided a nice treat to reward myself with after visiting the dermatologist.  She agreed that the spot on my left ankle is probably malignant, but couldn't decide how to deal with it until the results of the biopsy she did today come back. 

I feel a bit beleaguered sometimes, though I always remind myself that this is pretty minor compared to the suffering going on in the Middle East. I admire Biden for going there to try and do something about it, but I also think it would be a miracle if he succeeded.