Irony

I've already posted about the geographical irony here in Kentucky. I'm still riding my fixie and it's only 3 miles to work now. I still have more elevation change in that 3 miles than I did in my 10-12 mile commute in Utah. I figured it would be flat here, but I was sorely mistaken.

Today I recognized some more irony. The drivers here are great. Sure, the locals complain about them, but that's what locals do. In two full weeks of commuting and several long commutes from our apartment up north, I have not had a single encounter with a motorist. I haven't felt threatened, I haven't had anyone pass closely and I haven't been honked at. The commute here is through the downtown area, so there is a lot of traffic, wide multi-lane roads and fast speed limits. When I signal, cars yield and allow me to cross lanes of traffic to get into the turn lane. It's a great place to be on a bike, even though the roads are narrow and congested.

In Utah County, Utah (one of the most religiously oriented counties in the US) I was honked at at least weekly. I felt threatened every few days and had some serious close calls that were obvious intentional acts on the part of the motorist. I was intentionally shot by a shotgun while on a bike ride in Utah. I had things thrown at me on more than one occasion. Ironic that I feel safer on the roads of Kentucky than I did in Utah.

I realize that I've only been here a short time, but I feel that I've had enough interaction with cars that I've really been treated well considering the time period. I'm looking forward to some longer rides in nice weather.

Dilemma

We have a wonderful new home that we love. Sure, it has it's issues, but we love it. The boys are enjoying Kentucky. They say that it's creaky (that refers to our house), but I think they may mean that it's creeky (that refers to the abundance of creeks in the area).

The only thing that my middle son wanted with a house was an umbrella. We tried to explain that we would not be getting an umbrella with the house, but he didn't get it. So we look at this house and what do we find in the rafters of the garage but a large umbrella. So my son gets what he wanted out of a house. He got a house that came with an umbrella.

So here's the dilemma. We have a large oak tree in our yard. It's a beautiful tree. It shades the south side of the house which would be good for keeping it cool in the summer and warmer in the winter. I also like trees because they change CO2 into oxygen. That's important seeing that CO2 is now considered a pollutant. The dilemma arises in that this great tree also shades the vast majority of the back yard which we wanted for a garden area. So do we cut down the tree and grow others in different places and have a garden or do we keep the big tree and sacrifice our garden.

We have a little time to decide because I don't know how to cut down a big tree. Especially not a big tree in close proximity to houses... like mine.