We intended to go for a walk, but ran into a fellow condo owner that we really didn't know well - Rudy Deiterich. Rudy was doing similar tasks around his condo. We talked about the broken tree. He said he had tried to get it down, but didn't have a chain saw. I asked if he had a ladder I could borrow. When I told him I wanted to clean the rain gutter, he said, "You can borrow it, but I have to tell you a short story first. A lady in our neighborhood was on her roof. She fell and died. If you fall off, I don't want you to blame Rudy's ladder." I told it had been a good life. I would just ask that he speak at my funeral. He said he didn't like to speak, so he wouldn't. :-)
Anyway, he helped us take the ladder over to our condo. I climbed on the roof with a trowel, and went to work. Twenty minutes later Rudy came back to see how we were doing. We had the crud removed, but the downspout (which was crimped to go around the roof and deck bumps) was hopelessly plugged. We tried forcing a hose up. We tried forcing a hose down. Finally, we took the downspout apart. Rudy is a mechanic and had a variety of tools in his truck.
As we were cleaning up all the crud we got out of the raingutter, Rudy started on the tree. He had a pruner and a small hack saw. He would cut and Dad and I would haul the limbs off. I found a better pruner in the garage. I was amazed at how well it did on those mammoth limbs.
We worked on the tree for over an hour. I'm amazed someone didn't get severely injured. The limbs of the tree were wedged in the grass. As we sawed through a branch, the the top of the broken segment would shift. We would grab the branches and twist it around, trying to get the top to break free. At one point, I went sailing as the limb catapulted me across the grass. Just when we were ready to give up, we found a larger saw somebody had left in the grass at the neighboring hotel. Dad and Rudy took turns sawing and jumping out of the way of flying tree trunks. Finally, we got it all down and pushed over the edge of the neighboring hill.
While we were working, Steve kept getting phone calls and texts about his conducting tomorrow. Last week he had too many speakers (as he had forgotten a speaker whom the bishop has asked), and had to tell one to wait a month to give his talk. Today, he got a call saying the high counselor was coming and bringing a partner to speak with him. That was news to Steve. Steve had three speakers already, so there were a lot of calls/texts to sort that out. [I'm not sure why this hast to be so complicated. Steve's poor memory doesn't help. The person getting prayers last week didn't do it, and Steve didn't realize it until he had started the meeting. Songs were different than he had been told. New announcement were flung at him minutes before the meeting. I hoping the next month he conducts will be smoother.]
Anyway, Rudy and he started comparing notes. Rudy is ward clerk in a YSA ward in SLC. He said it is the HARDEST calling he's ever had - 150 new members this year all with records to transfer, names to enter in the ward lists, and so on.
Steve has been stressed with all the new names and challenges of making callings and figuring out who does what to make the ward click. Last week, these were his YSA responsibilities:
a. Four hour training meeting on Saturday
b. Sunday: bishop's meetings, church, and a 90 minute financial training in the evening
c. Monday: FHE (We watched 17 Miracles)
d. Tuesday: 2.5 hours of stake bishops training
e. Wednesday: Stake Opening Social (at the stake president's house) [We had a conflict, so we didn't go to this.]
Crazy!
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