Last spring, tree trimming crews gave our neighborhood a haircut. They weren’t utility crews, but private contractors from the city, taking care of the trees between the sidewalk and the street.

The work really improved the neighborhood’s appearance, but I didn’t truly appreciate it until this week’s destructive weather. Over 800,000 customers lost power due to wind damage. Michigan rarely experiences wind gusts the strength of a tropical storm because we are 12 parsecs north of the nearest jungle.

No one in our subdivision seems to have any major tree damage. I have a few branches to rake up. My only disappointment is that the storm didn’t rip down our Christmas tree lights.

All in all, we were very lucky. Lucky the weather missed us. Lucky to have preventive maintenance from our city government. Tax dollars at work, baby.