The Slanted Tree

Fourth in the series – Cedar Run

Photo of the slanted tree by Matt Murray, September 2004

This is the fourth in the series on “The Characters of Cedar Run”. This is the subdivision I used to live in for 21 years. There are about eighteen stories within the series. Every now and then I will put one of these stories out for everyone to read.

---

A few of the houses around me had multiple occupants during my over twenty years living in that subdivision. People put their houses up for sale all the time. Owners changed hands. Some would rent out their houses. There became a time when they had to put a cap on the rentals because there were so many. I think it was like 70 percent rentals.

Now I’ve got the story behind the second iteration of the house that I talked about during “The Feet People” story. They sold their house to a gentleman. He was in his early thirties. He had short brown hair and was of an average size.

He was in the military. I saw him several times wearing dark green fatigues. Patrick Air Force Base (now Space Force Base) is located across the river and within a few miles driving distance. I don’t know what branch of the service he was in. The U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Army were located at the base. The U.S. Army usually wears the darker green fatigues.

I would see him out mowing his lawn all the time. He didn’t seem to like to sit outside on his patio because I never saw him out there.

Everything was fine with him until it wasn’t. I didn’t see him for several months, so I thought he was probably on a long deployment.

While he was gone, we had a hurricane and a tropical storm.

There were three palm trees right behind his house (see above photo). One of the trees shifted and was half tipped over. If it fell, it would land on top of my house. Can you imagine the damage that could cause?

I remember the home owners association (HOA) board of directors came by and looked at it too. I overheard them saying that those trees should have never been planted there in the first place. They were way too close to the back of that property. I don’t know how it ever got approved. But we don’t even know if it ever was. A lot of people skirt the HOA and do things on their own. Sometimes it is because they don’t realize that living in a subdivision, you have to get approval for everything you do to your house and landscaping.

As you can see in the photo, there was a lot of rain in the dip in the backyard. There was only water in that location when we had hard rains and storms. There’s also a lot of tree branches down. The house on the right of the photo is mine. In fact, the first window you can see is my bedroom. Above my roof, you can see another huge tree. There’s a story behind that one too. You’ll hear about that some other time.

After the storms, some people who might have been relatives were seen checking on his house. They noticed the tree and looked at it for awhile. I thought they were going to get someone to cut it down. At the time, there were church volunteers going around to people’s houses to help them with things like that. They weren’t from our local community but states around the country. There are groups of volunteers that always come after big storms hit in places all across the United States. They do things like that for free. I thought they were going to get someone like that to do it. They didn’t.

Instead, the relatives came back with a heavy chain. I watched inside intently as they strung the chain up against the slanted tree and anchored it to the other two trees. I didn’t think this was very adequate.

I emailed the local city code enforcement. I told them what had happened and sent them a photo. The same day I emailed them, they were out there taking a look at it. I didn’t see them when they came. I knew they had been there because they posted a sign on a post right near the tree. It said the owner would need to remove the tree or they would be fined.

A couple of days later, the owner came home from deployment. He was surveying the house and noticed the sign. A few days later, someone came and cut the tree down.

Conclusion

The owner would live in the house for a few years before he sold it. I thought he probably got transferred to another base. Every few years, they usually have to move on to different locations.

I have a lot to say about the new owners. I can’t wait to post that one. They were involved in a lot of shenanigans.

I hope you liked this story. Feel free to share it.

Until next time, happy reading!

-Matt