Goddard has some sick trees, and nobody seems to be tending them, until they drop large, dead limbs across a sidewalk or trail.
I see this because sometimes I need to get outside and away from the internets for a quick sanity break. Sometimes that pull is hard to discern. Weaker than the LOLz over at www.cracked.com. Less compelling than GMail.
Smokers get away from their desks - there's a draw you don't ignore. I suppose that's a good side effect of anti-smoking regulations.
At Goddard, there are now signs posted at every door - the new policy does not allow smoking with 25 feet.
What does that have to do with me? I don't relish the idea of picking up a habit to get myself outside.
I'm still managing the transition from roving reporter to desk-jockey managing a web CMS, and inventing ways to get away from my desk once or twice a day (besides lunch). You need to rest your eyes from the screen glare, and what better way to do that than take a stroll.
What I see is dead and dying trees. One day, I pushed over a dozen or so zombie trees - just standing their, decaying, hosting no doubt an army of pathogens ready to take down the next hopeful young oak.
Not saying someone didn't stop and stare and wonder why this weirdo in a striped shirt was attacking trees.
Today I sat at an isolated picnic table, saw the Marlboro cigarette butt squashed amid the leaf litter, twigs and acorns, then saw a big ugly dead branch on the healthy oak a few feet away. This led to a few minutes of snapping dead branches off otherwise healthy trees, imagining the removal of a disease vector; not sure if the trees appreciated it.
This center needs a quarterly bonfire tradition, i think, to clear this deadwood and create healthier wooded areas. It could be held in different areas each time, and with time, would create a safer center - think of all that accumulated tinder waiting for a random lightning strike or un-snuffed cigarette.
Not that I think center security would be warm to the idea.
