We didn't always have this grand of a view of downtown Roanoke. When we bought the house and over the years since then, we kept making the decision that we wanted trees not a bare landscape behind the house. Yet there was one spot where the view wasn't very good because of a long Popular limb growing out from the largest tree behind our house.
In the winter of 2000 we decided to have a few damaged tree removed along with a huge Paradise tree. These guys came in and worked in tee shirts on a day when the temperature was in the twenties. I asked one of them if he could cut down the branch that was in my view. Of course he said yes.
It was an impressive site seeing someone thirty fee up in the air, trimming a tree with one hand.
He even managed to smoke a cigarette while he was doing it.
The big branches being cut opened up a wonderful view for us of downtown Roanoke.
I found this piece of news interesting today. The article in the Free New Mexican is called, "MIT Professor Dismisses Laptop Criticism." There's a really great quote which should be around for ages.
Kicking off the LinuxWorld conference in Boston, Nicholas Negroponte said he was undeterred by skepticism from two of the leading forces in computing, Intel Corp. (INTC) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)
"When you have both Intel and Microsoft on your case, you know you're doing something right," Negroponte said, prompting applause from the audience of several hundred open-source software devotee.
I hope Negroponte succeeds in getting his $100 laptops off the ground. We need to close the gap between the technology haves and have-nots.
In other news, The Toronto Star is talking about a New Orleans of the North style disaster, but it appears carrots and broccoli would be the victims.
The fertile farms of Holland Marsh are just one big rainfall away from a $200 million disaster that could make them the "New Orleans of the north," a local official warns.
Art Janse, drainage superintendent for Bradford West Gwillimbury, said the area's system of canals and dikes just isn't capable of withstanding a big storm.
"There's a huge disaster just waiting to happen," Janse said yesterday, standing on the bank of one of the canals that keep water from overflowing into nearby low-lying farms north of Newmarket — often called the breadbasket of Ontario.
Well, I wishing the Canadians well on this one. It's never easy to figure out who needs to pay the bills even on worth projects. Below are two sunrise pictures taken thirty seconds apart, just as the light is changing.
With the dry and windy conditions, let's hope that tree service dude isn't smoking a cancer stick high aloft in any local woodlands today!
Sean
Posted by: Sean Pecor | April 05, 2006 at 12:26 PM