Crack'd!!!

Nope, this isn't a post about the latest in the Rob Ford scandal. It's about the giant thing that fell in our front yard last night.

The street we live on is unusual as it used to be the driveway for a large estate. When the land was sold off in parcels, they maintained the trees that lined the drive and created a large boulevard in front of the houses. Well, the boulevard is large for the part of the city we live in - most of the sidewalks in this area directly adjoin the roadway.

Note the man with the stroller crouched down in front of the branch across the sidewalk - there's been a steady stream of gawkers all morning.

The trees are beautiful, but they're also really old. And they're starting to act their age and are losing large limbs at an alarming rate. It was only a matter of time until the branch that fell last night came down. It had a long crack running along the length of one of the upper branches that overhang the house. A couple of calls to the city over the years didn't result in any action. I never knew whether it was because the arborist decided that the branch was okay, or if wasn't ever inspected.

On a windy day earlier this spring I kind of lost it on Alan when he let Cal play out front on a really windy day. I know he felt that I was being kind of neurotic (as do the boys when I make them run to get off the block as quickly as possible on windy days), but I didn't want some huge branch to squash him like a bug.

Now I feel vindicated. This branch would have done some serious damage had it landed on someone.

I have to admit - I was not so secretly hoping that when it came down it would take out our front porch with it. It's time for a new one, and a little help from the city with the demolition costs would have been welcome.

It was close, but not quite close enough!