Non-Global Warming

This winter the landlord decided rather than trim the giant pine tree in the front yard, he would have it cut down. This was a perfectly healthy tree, one of the tallest in the neighborhood, and ring count put it at well over 100 years old. (One neighbor claimed to have counted nearly 200 rings on the stump. He decided to cut the thing down only a week after it had withstood what some called the worst Portland wind storm in decades. Yes, cutting down trees sometimes needs to happen. This was not one of those occasions. All members of the household were sad to see the tree go.

Besides an on-going five month debacle in which the tree has still not been fully removed from the yard, the yard still has an impact crater that collects water and grass won't grow in, there is still a stump whole surrounded by wood chips that our landlord hasn't done anything with, besides all this, I have noticed other effects.

The house used to be consistently cool. All winter long, cold. All summer, cool. It was always at the lower range on the thermometer. That has changed. It still gets just as cold as it used to, but now warms up considerably during the day. One of the worst spots is our bedroom. This upstairs room used to receive direct shade from the tree for about half the day. The room now heats up quick. This is a nuisance for me now that I am on graveyard and try to sleep during the day. There is something even more annoying, though. Flies. This is an old house with no screens on the windows. I used to really enjoy that. Now with the higher house temperatures, the flies like to come in and buzz around the house all day. In the past couple of years, we would get one or two flies buzzing around the house. Now there are two rooms buzzing with them.

Or maybe it all has to do with global warming and not that one old growth tree that was cut down from the front yard.