The destruction of the hackberry trunk continues; Matt’s gotten it almost into manageable pieces by dint of consistent effort, chain sawing, sledges and wedges and crowbars. He split the sledge’s handle this evening, which sent me off to Home Depot, where I had a spat with a clerk who insisted on trying to sell me an ax-handle. I “won” the fight by showing her a sister to my sledge, holding it up next the other handle, and inviting her to explain just how she thought I was going to make the two fit together, to which she went away, bleating about how she couldn’t know about what brand of hammer I had, leaving me in possession of the field. After that, I picked up three bags of topsoil to spread around the second crape myrtle (which FINALLY went into the ground yesterday) and the bed where L planted the marigolds and zinnias, four more coreopsis, some garden-hose fix-it parts, and a jar of rooting compound, and went home.
While Matt and L were doing things to the hackberry (L was breaking up and bagging more of the small brush to go out), I dug the ash and dirt out of The Stump That Would Not Die, soaked it with kero again, filled the hollow with charcoal and soaked that with kero, let it absorb for a while, then touched it off. It made a very nice blaze, but tried to get away from me, which required a quick squirt from the garden hose to remind it where the boundaries were. I really hope this nukes the stump enough that it’s really and truly dead and I can try to cut it off at ground level . . . which reminds me, I forgot to pick up a new chain for my saw. Bother.
I’m astonished and a little ashamed at how much work Matt’s put in recently on getting the hackberry cut up. I would have been quite reluctant to do so much as he’s done, were our positions reversed. Still, I couldn’t possibly have done the job he’s done, myself, so all I can think to do is to be grateful, and to go out of my way to help when next he needs assistance.
Earlier in the afternoon I had a long talk with a recruiter about not getting any callbacks from all the resumés I’m sending out. He gave me a deal of good advice about following up with HR people and hiring managers, which I’m going to start doing. He also gave some helpful advice about how to spin the fact of being fired, so it sounds less negative.
Mr. Spock is Buck Rogers’s ostrich. Fnord.
