(this was written a few days before hurricane season ended, but I’m hoping for the best)

With the end of hurricane season, most of my neighbors can breathe a sigh of relief. More time to repair buildings not yet fixed from past seasons, and time to mostly relax from the threat of natural disaster.

The season’s also usually a double whammy for our family: both of us adults are responsible in some ways for pieces of our hurricane planning and continuity for work. But while I was glad to not need to do more than sit through a few meetings and keep my family supply stock up, I was a hair disappointed in the quiet season. Because I’d really love a reason to be rid of my front yard weeds trees.

I’m not particularly fond of palm trees, but that’s what was planted in my yard when we closed on the house. But they weren’t picking on me: the darn things are everywhere. But my neighbors got the luck in the palm tree draw. Their trees don’t need shaving or primping to look manicured and meet the community standards that vary wildly depending on who is doing the drive-by, clipboard in hand.

The other trees are easy. Clip the dying leaves, and forget about it. My particular type of tree has long fronds with long wrappy bits they cling to the tree with, similar to the Syagrus romanzoffiana (Queen) palm. Which is nice if you’re a critter, but can look pretty bad if you’re an amateur landscaper heckled by the neighbors for not spraying weed and feed every three months.

But if a hurricane came through and knocked my trees down (into the yard, thanks) I would not shed a tear. I’d just send them to the Great Big Compost Yard off of 95 and get something a little shorter and a little easier to maintain. Something I don’t need a saw-on-a-stick to trim every couple of months.

Meantime, I’ll start drawing down the canned food stocks, mixing my ‘07 supplies into evening meals and weekend lunches. They’re high in sodium, but if I stretch them with fresh and frozen, we should be able to consume meals that don’t contain an entire day’s RDA per serving.