Today’s job was to go up the mountain into the forest to cut tree branches that were hanging too low for traffic to clear. The sky was a deep blue, the trees were bright green and the air was cool and fresh with a slight smell of someone’s fireplace keeping them warm. A beautiful day, that was pretty good. That fresh air smell changed as we rounded the next turn. A dead skunk was laying in the middle of the road, having been run over the night before. That was pretty bad.

As we drove up the mountain we noticed a mule deer and 3 of her babies chewing on the fresh foliage. We stopped to watch and admire the peaceful picture. That was pretty good. We got underway and headed for the job site. Not much further up the road a party of javalena’s were crossing the road. Most people say that God has made at least 2 mistakes. The pit in an avocado is way too big and the javalena’s are just too darn ugly. That is pretty bad.

We arrived at our first stop and prepared our chainsaws. A man came up to us and asked what we were going to do. We told him that we needed to remove a few tree limbs so that they would not interfere with school buses and fire trucks. He thought that was a good idea and even asked us to take a little more than we needed. He was very happy when we agreed. That was pretty good.

Further up the road we could see another low hanging limb. When we got there, we could see where it had been hit a few times already by a high profile vehicle. We started up the saws when an elderly lady came hurrying toward us. I motioned to turn off the saws as she came closer hollering something and waving her arms. Don’t you dare cut my tree, she told us. We tried to explain the reasons we had for cutting the limb, but she didn’t hear a single one. It’s our boss’s problem now, as we packed away our tools. The lady watched us pull away and raised her fist at us. That was pretty bad.

Walking through the kitchen door at home, my wife asked how was my day ? PRETTY GOOD and PRETTY BAD.