"'Tis an Ill Wind Indeed Which Blows No One Any Good"

. A little story that's another example of " ’Tis an ill wind that blows nobody any good. " Perhaps you have heard of this expression? Bartleby's explains: someone profits by every loss; someone is benefited by every misfortune.
. Anyway there were two maples in the back yard, one in front of the other. The farther one in back had five trunks, two of which plus the main stem, were partially rotted through. Also the bark was falling off the main trunk in an unsightly way, and invoked pity, if nothing else. If it should ever break in a storm unfortunately it would fall in the neighbor's yard in back of us, not mine. Though I'm sure she'd be understanding about something not under my control, still it would not be good for neighborly relations.
. So "to kill two birds with one stone" (an expression that almost slipped from my lips at a Maine Audubon meeting!): 1) My spouse would like a little more sunlight coming through in the back of the property; and 2) I would like to get rid of a hazard tree and be able get on with other projects that the tree issue is holding up. (Is that three birds, or two?)
. I got out my chainsaw and 2-story ladder and tackled the trunks and branches that were safely accessible and would naturally drop into my yard. I know my limits so the rest of the job called for the pros. I phoned a couple of tree services and left voice mails. One on Sunday, one on Monday. I happened to be home Monday: a day off to catch up on home chores.
. Early in the afternoon soon after a crazy hail storm I saw a truck, with two men in the cab, pull up in front of our house. It was equipped with a "cherry picker" (personnel lifter). I couldn't see the full name on door, but it wasn't Bangor Hydro. I thought: Because he has a good sized cherry picker on the truck, maybe Bangor Hydro had so much hail storm damage to power lines they hired a private contractor to help? Of course I thought that was awfully fast response to the storm if that were so!
. Next door at the retired math professor's, a landscaping guy from another company happened to be working. I don't know if these two parties knew each other, but in any case tradesmen tend to form a brotherhood with others of the same profession, no matter that they are competitors. The two men went over to chat with him, idling the truck motor all the while. When I finally saw the company name on the truck -- Colvin's -- I did not connect it with my calls as I mistakenly thought I had called companies named Coleman’s on Sunday and Copeland’s on Monday.
. After a while the two from the idling truck started to walk up our driveway: a tall lean guy with a full red beard, dressed plainly and looking like my image of a Biblical prophet. But on closer look his beard barely disguised his relative youth. The other was a shorter, reticent guy in a bright yellow raincoat, who seemed to literally follow in the “Prophet’s” footsteps. They were heading straight for our back yard, so I rushed out to greet them, forgetting my in-house shoelessness. My bare feet seemed to attract their attention and they showed mild surprise... and I made it worse by saying "Boy that was fast. Didn't I just call you a few minutes ago?" The Prophet stopped in his tracks and looked at me puzzledly saying: "You called yesterday." I was not fully convinced yet, but I felt a little embarassed with the possibility that I might indeed have confused him with a competitor. I figured I'd better cover my tracks and so I said "Oh yes, now I remember."
. With the reticence typical of Maine men... the Prophet said "Well the ice storm prevented us from doing another job, so if you want I could do it now. Otherwise it will be a month from now." So the ice storm that was bad luck for some other party turned out to be fortunate for me, literally an ill wind blowing someone at least, some good.