11 June 2007

St. Smitty of the Mangoes

This morning I went to Smittygirl's place before work to water the garden. We didn't get to it yesterday and it was very hot. Same story today, although there may yet be some rain today. Perhaps. If we're lucky.

Smittygirl's house has a mango tree in the side yard, along the driveway. Some power lines go into the corner of the house from the street. This morning some people from the utility company, or maybe a contractor brought in by the utility company, but anyway they were cutting tree limbs and stuff. And the mango tree has mangoes on it!

They were cutting away at the mango tree when I arrived. I was concerned for the mangoes, which are admittedly overhanging the power lines. I said, "You're not going to cut the fruit, are you?"

I got a blank look. Later, after I talked to the other guy, I realized that the first employee I'd talked to spoke no English at all. I was a little annoyed by that but I didn't bother to think much about it... this is the utility company I'm talking about, not some fly-by-night local landscape company. You'd think the utility company, at least, would tend to hire employees who at least had limited English, right?

In any event, once I found the right employee I had to intercede on behalf of the mangoes. They weren't doing anything wrong, I said, and anyway they're mangoes. They'll ripen and fall or be picked off within a couple months anyway. I suppose I was persuasive enough, because the mangoes were still there and the workers had moved on to other trees in other yards when I left.

Of course the mangoes may all be gone when Smittygirl gets there to water again this afternoon. We'll see. For now though I'm offering intercession to any mangoes in need.

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