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Nutshell Kingdom: Bulldozer Man
2005
This morning, after my full-body coffee bath, I saw a sad sight. Next door, where just two weeks ago stood a pretty old stone house, the bulldozers were continuing their earth flattening rampage. Well, it was one bulldozer.
For a long time, my neighboring lot was paradise: an old white stone house, vacant (so no pesky neighbors), and a yard teeming with trees. But progress is what it is and the lot turned out to be big enough for two, yes two, new houses, rather than a paltry one slightly abandoned house.
So the bulldozer came and the trees went down first. Giant root systems high in the air, confused birds everywhere, flying in and out of the grounded branches, gathering what was left of their home.
The next day, the house was gone. Except for the front stairs, the basement, a rusty red tricycle and two new cannisters of bright yellow tennis balls. The mud and sediment now run red all over the sidewalk whenever it rains.
Today, the bulldozer is just flattening ground. The excavation continues. While I watched, bulldozer man took out an entire branch of our pear tree. An entire branch, loaded with fruit, crashed to the ground, on our side of the fence. I looked at bulldozer man and shook my fist. I ran inside and showed him my diploma from law school in a a threatening manner. I shook my fist again and mouthed things like "You're gonna pay, big man," and "I know where you live." He didn't really notice. I was just a little man and he was a great big bulldozer man.
In the end I had to go to work. I'll have to clean up the downed branch and all the young pears this afternoon when I get home. I wish there was something more I could have done. Progress can be so hard, so ugly.
