I've had two arborists look at the tree. Yesterday it was a guy from a tree service, and this morning it was a guy from the Will County Forest Preserve District. (I put my tax dollars to work!
)
Verdict? Both of them said that I should have cut it down by now. It's mostly hollow inside and has a rotted base, which confirms my opinions.
Our son will bring over a couple of guys from the public works crew in the village where he works to cut it down for us. It's in a real bad spot. Too bad, too; it has a beautiful crown and from a distance it looks great. But it's beyond its normal life expectancy for maples in this area.
On another subject, our security light stopped working on Sunday night. Yesterday morning I called ComEd and requested that it be repaired. Of course, they had no record of it being in existence.
After some discussion, they agreed that it was their light and they promised service in about two weeks. This morning a lady showed up and fixed it. Nothing worked on it; she said it looked like it took a lightning hit. (She was the 1st woman assigned to a ComEd crew in this area 21 years ago. And believe thee me, she was
HOT!!!!!
) She was very professional and replaced everything, and now it's back in operation. I complimented her on her service, and she was truly grateful.
Her big service truck LOOKED great, but she said it runs on propane and gets 3 MPG. She hates it, but being one of two women service people there.....
Now I await the next "project," which will be cutting down that tree. Or getting grass seed spread in the back yard.
Or Bobcat work from my buddy to finish the drainage area he made for me. Or getting him to fix the elevations by that drainage area.