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It’s kind of a cool day, all the slender trees around the house waving like mad in the gusts. I drove home from a theatre-teaching interview and the music on the radio was really good and I was feeling happy, so when I parked the car in front of my house I just sat there for a bit, letting the good song finish, watching the clouds race over my roof. They seem so close today!

I noticed that, a few houses down the road from me, several rotten, slender trees/tree branches had fallen across the road and shattered, creating a mini-roadblock. As I sat there in my car, I saw one big SUV hesitate, then gun it through, and about four more cars approach, slow, stop, and then back hilariously far down the road (there are no convenient driveways at the spot) to turn around and choose a different route. I kept being surprised that no driver just got out and moved the branches–it’s a quiet residential street, and none of the branches were that unmanageable, but everyone seemed to decide it was easier to find a path around. Finally I got tired of giggling at people and, feeling that it was a neighborly thing to do, I got out of my car and walked up the street to clear the branches away.

The first car that approached and saw what I was doing pulled up and stopped, and the driver got out and wordlessly began to help me. Ditto for the second car, coming up from the other direction. A passing jogger also pitched in. The whole thing took about three minutes.

It’s like the empty dance floor–all it takes is one crazy person to start, and pretty soon the whole place is grooving together. Breaking the surface tension. I like doing that.

With gusts of affection,
Alissa