The living, the dead, and the eucalyptus
Last weekend, while the rest of the Bay Area was burning up in the upper 90s and low 100s, Oakland was as pleasant as ever. To celebrate our climatic superiority, some friends and I gathered at the Mountainview Cemetery for a picnic. We set up on the Potter’s Field, because there aren’t any tombstones and because it’s fun to explain what a Potter’s Field is to people who don’t know.
We’d been there for just shy of an hour when our meal was interrupted by a loud cracking noise. Everyone looked up to see a substantial branch falling from the upper reaches of a nearby eucalyptus tree. I had only a couple seconds to process what was happening and exclaim, “Hey, that’s my car!” before this happened:
(thanks to Christian for the photos)
I reject all claims that this was a case of our downstairs neighbors getting back at us for the noise we were making. If anything, I think they appreciated the company. Or didn’t notice us at all, on account of being dead. This wasn’t about the dead versus the living; it was about California versus eucalyptus trees.
Fine, it doesn’t want me to share my photo. http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3635/3678795494_2279813374.jpg