The Top of the World

I'm on the top of the world lookin' down on creation
And the only explanation I can find
Is the love that I've found, ever since you've been around
Your love's put me at the top of the world

Way back in 1972, the Carpenters sang a song with the above lyrics as the chorus.  It was about being on "top of the world" because of being in love.  Although I am indeed in love with my wife, something else put me on top of the world on Saturday - a desire to cut some limbs from one of our live oak trees.  The limbs in question had grown and were being pulled by gravity so that they were rubbing on the roof on top of the dormer windows.  This is no good.  I don't want them to damage our roof, especially with hurricane season coming up in a month and a half.

Trimming the offending limbs was the last thing on my to do list for the weekend and it was last for a reason.  Tricia is not in favor of 'risky' tasks like this.  I surreptitiously got the pickup truck backed up to the house, extended the ladder almost all the way and braced it against the front of the pickup truck bed.  The plan was to get this done like Seal Team 6.  Move in.  Move out.  Mission accomplished.

There was a kink in the plans.  Before I could execute it, Tricia saw my non-OSHA-approved aerial apparatus.  I was able to talk her into allowing me to get the job done by helping me to hold the ladder steady and to hand me the extendable pole chain saw.  

I gingerly climbed the ladder, got the chainsaw lifted up, and cut through four or five limbs and watched them (not me) tumble down the roof and to the ground.  I was pretty high up.  Like being on top of the world.  I am not afraid of heights, but I wasn't keen on falling and hitting the ground either.  A quick joke about the life insurance being paid up was not appreciated by Tricia.  In the end, we had Success!  We filled the back of the pickup truck with live oak branches and drove around to the back and fed them to the goats.  Goats love browse.  In no time flat, they had eaten every single leaf off of the limbs.

I love it when a plan comes together that is a win-win for all involved.  A task was taken off the to-do list without loss of life or (my) limb and the goats got fed.