Don't Back Down

Before I even get started, let me say that I like trees. I've planted trees. Just after I moved into this house (nearly 6 years ago!), I put a nice Green Ash in the front yard. I joined the National Arbor Day Foundation a year or two ago. The trees they sent me didn't work out - I think they were too small. Or perhaps I waited too long to plant them. Just a couple weeks back, I planted a Red Scarlet Maple, a Wisconsin Weeping Willow and a Clump European White Birch in the back yard. I like trees.

I don't get this at all. Who in their right mind could possibly think that a tree is worth $175,000? Now if you're talking a famous tree - for instance the Angel Oak - then maybe. But a white ash tree in the middle of a neighborhood full of such trees? That doesn't make any sense.

Sure, I understand that the tree provided shade. I understand that it was probably a nice addition to the landscape. But I cannot believe that you couldn't spend a couple hundred bucks (if even that much) on a younger version of the same tree and plant it just about where the old one sat. It'll take a few years to get to the right height, of course - but I doubt that's worth anything like $175,000.

Somewhere along the line our priorities just got completely out of whack, and sooner or later we're going to have to do something about it.

For those of you who missed the post put up by Peter, be sure to check out the $15 Wireless Intellimouse Explorer from Microsoft at CompUSA (through Saturday the 9th).

I picked up a couple of these devices, and I have to say that I'm very happy thus far. That alone is quite an improvement, as I've always been a trackball kind of guy. Now I'm not so sure that I'm ready to completely give up the trackball or anything, but I am definitely enjoying the mouse at the moment. I love especially how I can just pick it up and move it - stick it in a drawer, or use it on a desk across the room, that sort of thing. Very nice indeed.