The City Arborist was right! Who knew?

Our tree lawn tree was suffering a bit.  It had some dried branches that I just couldn't get off.  Standing at the top ladder, I was still too short.  The neighbor suggested that I phone the city to have them come out to trim it.  After all, it is their tree anyhow.  

The City Arborist came out and gave it a look.  He phoned me with some rather sad news.  

She had to go.

It seems that he found "a cavity" and that he put a stick into it that went about "3/4 of the way through."  He promised me that they would cut it down and replant in the fall.  Still, when they came, it was very, very sad.

The old girl.  If you enlarge, you'll see the dead branches.  You'll also see the path that we're putting in to go to the front step and the pile of lawn that I dealt with tonight.  (We allowed it to dry so that I could shake off excess dirt in order to dispose then plant new grass.)

The axe murderers came.

He wielded his long handled chain saw. 

And wielded.

Until she was a very tall stump.  They cleaned up all around her . . . 

. . . And they left her that way.  No kidding.  It was like the tree was continually giving me the ugly finger from the tree lawn.  It was not pretty.

The neighbor came to ask if he could have the wood.  I said to have at it.  He did and lookie what he found.  

The arborist was right.  

And with that, Mike left me a shorter stump that doesn't look as hideous as the tall one.  

The city will be out to cut the remaining portion of the tree and grind the stump.  They'll plant grass and in the fall, they'll come back, dig a big hole and give me a new tree.

So sad to see her go, but the arborist was right and I am very glad that she didn't come down on someone.

TWISTEX: A huge loss for severe storm research.

I was just checking the radar before I went to the soccer field and found a bit on the Weather Channel sidebar about tornado researchers having been killed.  As most know by now, Tim Samaras, his son Paul and Carl Young all died as a result of a multi-vortex tornado in El Reno.

I say nothing that no one else has said yet.  He was a pioneer in severe weather research.  He was with all other researchers who wanted to learn why some storms developed tornadoes and not others, as well as advancing early warning systems.  

Tim and his team did what they did for research.  They weren't out to take a pretty picture.  They weren't out just because they had nothing else to do.  It was not their quest to get inside of a tornado, yet that is what they did in the end. 

Our sympathy to the TWISTEX family.  I know that severe weather research is suffering the loss of this very talented individual and his team.

From TVN.  So very sad.

An update from Yahoo:

It's unclear exactly how the men were killed, but a fellow storm chaser told ABC that their equipment is missing. "The family and overall scientific community would like it recovered to see what happened and what went wrong," the storm chaser said.

Since I just watched a news report with Ginger Zee, it was stated that Tim was found strapped into the vehicle with his seat belt, but that one of the other two gentleman was found 1/2 mile away.  Perhaps the video equipment and other scientific equipment is dispersed out into the field and they haven't located it yet.  I hope that for the sake of the Samaras and Young families, as well as all of those who knew and loved all of the men involved, that the equipment is found and that they are able to see what happened and to put that into further research to help others.

From ABC Channel 7 in Denver:

The Samaras family released a statement Sunday afternoon asking for thoughts and prayers:

"We would like to express our deep appreciation and thanks for the out pouring of support to our family at this very difficult time.   We would like everyone to know what an amazing husband, father, and grandfather he was to us.  Tim had a passion for science and research of tornadoes. He loved being out in the field taking measurements and viewing mother nature. His priority was to warn people of these storms and save lives. Paul was a wonderful son and brother who loved being out with his Dad.  He had a true gift for photography and a love of storms like his Dad.  They made a special team. They will be deeply missed. We take comfort in knowing they died together doing what they loved. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers."

 -- Kathy Samaras, Amy Gregg, Jennifer Scott

A continued update on the missing equipment is that the camera equipment that [they] were using at the time of their death is still missing.  They are asking that if you come across the camera equipment in the tornado/storm debris to please let the authorities know.

From Channel 9 News in Colorado.

A phone interview with Tim on Friday. 

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

From The Weather Space- a post written by someone who knew Tim Samaras personally.  

Edited to add on 6/5/13-

I read a very interesting article in USA Today.  It stated that the El Reno tornado went from 1 mile to 2.6 miles wide in the matter of 30 seconds. It was because of DOW measurements that the El Reno tornado was upgraded from EF3 to EF5.  With as quickly as it developed width, people probably didn't even know that it was happening until it was there.   

               

Image found in the Washington Post article.               

A little bit 'o luck.

When we were on an evening walk a few weeks ago, K stopped and immediately said, "Oh look!  There's a four leaf clover!"  She immediately found another.  I stepped over and found one myself.

It is now that I say that I have looked and looked since early childhood and it wasn't until this moment that I found one ever.

She gave one to the neighbor as a birthday gift and we pressed the other two in her bible.  We forgot all about it until they fell out this morning.

We're thrilled to have them.  I know that it is a weird thing, but it is sort of a life long hunt fulfilled.  :)