Loose ends

I'm a little late getting this blog out today.

I think it has something to do with changing back to daylight savings time. You know, moving the clock up an hour to give us more daylight in our circadian rhythms, or something like that. Don't ask me, I'm just a sports writer.

Anyway, where does that lost hour go? I think the actual time shift is supposed to take place at 2 a.m., when we're all asleep (clearly a conspiratorial act by the perpetrators involved in DST), so we never actually see the time change. Apparently, we adjust our clocks — and thus our rhythms — on the faith that this actually works.

But when 2 a.m. gets here, does my digital clock automatically jump to 3 a.m.? If so, where does that lost hour go? I think I understand the metaphysics (logic) of it all, just not the physics (execution).

                                                                       •  •  •

Last March we had that horrendous ice storm that broke two substantial branches off one of the two maple trees in my front yard.

This is the damage we suffered in last year's ice storm.

We'd never had a tree issue like that before, and it was nearly impossible to get an arborist to trim the tree immediately after the storm because, well, they were so busy with other emergencies.

So it took us a while to finally get in touch with a tree professional.

Actually, we talked with somebody in the fall, who happened to be working in our neighborhood. I got him to come over to our house to take a look at the tree that had given up two of its boughs. I was concerned the tree might become infected at the point of its fracture and perhaps die. I didn't want that to happen.

We finally get our trees trimmed and treated a year later.

Because it was autumn, and the sap was still running, he suggested it would be better to wait a few months before bringing out the chainsaws.

That made sense to me.

So about a week ago, we contacted the tree service and made arrangements to prune and saw.

I was pleased with the work. The tree was thinned and the jagged breaks were squared off. I'm hoping in earnest that the tree survives and I feel confident that it will.

I just can't believe that it took a year for the process to fulfill itself.

                                                                        •  •  •

It was also a year ago (to the day) that we learned that Malaysian Flight 370 was lost without a trace, along with 239 passengers and crew.

I made the supposition then, with tongue somewhat in cheek, that space aliens caused the disappearance of the aircraft. Indeed, space aliens was actually one of the wild theories that was poking its way in and out of the news by some of the crackpots out there.

However... lost without a trace. Literally falling off the radar. And so, a year later, space aliens seems as viable an explanation as anything else we've heard.

Excuse me. I have to go take my medicine now.