End-of-season clearance

Free, for the sweeping, a billion or two leaves.

The walkway to our apartment is under a big, old sapodilla, and there are big, old mahoganies all along Simonton, on the walk to the house, so I've been having flashbacks to Illinois autumns for the last few weeks as my flip-flops swish through swaths of fallen leaves.

We're coming up on the end of the dry season -- rainy starts at the end of May -- and this one has been even drier than usual, which I think accounts for the heavier-than-usual leaf drop.

Some of the mahoganies are in sad shape, and city workers took down one ancient giant between City Hall and the Building Department this week.

When I first saw the tree permit taped to the trunk, I assumed it was just for pruning. When I saw the old thing reduced to mere trunk, I gasped. And a day later, there was nothing but a small mound of mulch. Mahogany in a wood-chipper. Thomas Chippendale is weeping, and my feet crackle through his dry, fallen tears.