Manner of speaking. There is a giant tree on the outer strip of our lawn, that side of the sidewalk. We appreciate its shade. It has been there since we bought this house (1989) and probably since the house was first built (1929). The local sewer pipe, meaning from our house to the city’s sewer line, which runs under the street, is made of clay. Over time these pipes develop cracks or their joints open ever so slightly—what with being lifted by roots outside them. Then tree roots can invade the pipe and produce, in the worst cases, the sort of thing I’m showing here from a photograph. The image comes from an Australian source (link)—but trees are the same all over. In this illustration, there may very well be a much, much narrower channel in the center of that hairy surrounding—but not enough to let the wastes flow out as they ought. So we’re now facing a pretty expensive operation to free our canal of its roots. This sort of thing is educational, enlightening—but hard on the pocketbook. Maintenance, maintenance! Our economy needs jobs? I bet there is plenty of maintenance to be done. Tomorrow we join the ranks of the job creators.
