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cryptogenic organizing pneumonia, which could have gotten much worse before Richard even noticed symptoms. But in his case, the treatment was ten days of steroids.
I stood there and thought, you never knew what was going to happen to the Pritchards. Anyway, the rain slowed to a drizzle, and as if on cue and with no discussion whatsoever, those whose trucks and homes were both on the same side of the tree went to get their chainsaws. In about a half hour, progress began on tree removal, with seven men cutting the tree into chunks that could be carried or rolled. One of the men, who had gotten a brand new Ford 150, happily and with some flare, chained the part of the tree that was leaning on the Pritchards’ place to his truck and pulled it off. It then occurred to him that he didn’t know where to take it. The men and Hellen, after a brief consultation, decided to just cut it up like the rest of the tree and set it down in the park area. Those without chainsaws available wielded brooms and cleaned up the glass and debris from both the sidewalk and inside the store after Dave declared that it was structurally sound. Danny, for his part, gave someone a piece of plywood, which was used to board up the window area. I saw this as a personal opportunity to do my part and simultaneously lose the Soft Hands moniker, so I borrowed Danny’s chainsaw.
He asked me, “Are you sure that you can use one of these things?”
“Of course,” I lied.
A number of the guys stopped to look at me as I carried Danny’s chainsaw; they shook their heads, and George wagged his finger at me. I took the chainsaw back but reappeared with Danny’s ax; I could hack off the branches while the others cut up the trunk. Upon seeing me with the ax, the men looked at one another and shrugged. Buddy offered a little instruction. I just nodded. I held the ax with both my hands, up over my head, put all of my one hundred and fifty-five pounds of strength to hack off the branch. I made some real headway the first couple of times, and I was encouraged. Then, the last couple of inches of the branch gave way much faster than I had anticipated. The ax tip ended up imbedded in my thigh, and that’s how I