BUMPER CROP

My son Alex and I were walking in our neighborhood listening to the metallic ping as acorns dropped from the trees and bounced off of cars. “Remember how many acorns there were last year?”

Alex nodded his head. “The sidewalks were covered.”

“People had leaf piles at the curb along with acorn piles! It was unbelievable!” I kicked an acorn ahead of us to see if I could keep it on the sidewalk so I could kick it again but it veered off into someone’s yard. “I wonder why last year had so many more than this year?”

Alex shrugged his shoulders. “I have no idea.”

I pulled my phone out of my pocket. “Well, I know one way to find out.” I began typing while we were walking but I had to stop because typing while walking with acorns covering the sidewalk was a little like trying to get across a room covered in marbles. You definitely need to be watching where you step.

“Okay here it is.” I held up my phone. “Last year was a mast year.”

Alex looked confused. “What’s that suppose to mean?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “No clue.” I looked back at the phone to read some more. “It says it takes a lot of energy for the oaks to produce acorns so the trees have to be healthy to be able to do that.” I nodded as I looked around at all the oak trees in our neighborhood and all the acorns on the ground already. “Clearly we have very healthy oaks around here.”

Alex stepped on a few of the empty caps nearby and we listened to the familiar crunch that let us know they’d been off the tree for a while. “Seems pretty healthy to me.”

We could hear a wood grinder off in the distance as we began walking again crunching our way along the sidewalk. “Oh man, I hope they aren’t taking down an oak tree.”

“Why?” Alex asked.

We rounded a corner and there were several trucks parked at the curb. The wood grinder was being feed limbs from a tree.

“Yup, they’re chopping up a oak tree.” I stated as my nose began to fill.

Alex looked over at me a look of concern on his face. “You’re eyes are really watering.”

I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand. “I know.” I began to sniffle. “It wasn’t until we moved to this neighborhood that I found out I’m allergic to oak trees.”

We turned around and began walking in the opposite direction from the tree trimmers. “I just have to get away from them and I’ll be okay.”

We walked a few blocks and I felt like I could breath again. I wiped my eyes one last time and took a shaky deep breath. “It’s crazy how quick it comes on and how quickly it goes away.” I shook my head and took another deep breath. “Okay I think I’m better now.”

Alex looked over at me shaking his head. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

“I’m fine now.”

“That is the weirdest reaction I’ve ever seen.”

“I know!” I began to laugh, before I heard another tree grinder up ahead. I looked behind us then once again ahead before I looked over at Alex. “I’m beginning to think this walk idea today was a bad idea.”