[Edward Hitchens]

[Jean-Carle Hudon]

''venting'', are we... well, dear friends and fellow metal addicts, venting is all about wind, ''vent'' being the french word for wind, so venting is most probably one more remnant of the Norman reign in England, so on thursday evening, Mother Nature was venting, and crying her little heart out... I have no idea how much water fell in about ten minutes, but my pool's level went up near two inches, and then that noise, you know, the crack, the thud, and yup, there it was, half a tree across my workshed and on to the roof of the old house, one gust of wind too many and the tree litterally tore in half....So I had to talk to the nice people at the insurance company, listen to this : the cost of removing the tree from my house and repairing the damage to the roof's structure is covered, but not the cost of cutting down the tree and removing the debris. Huh!!??? So more venting was the order of the day, followed by the talk with the fine chainsaw-wielding man who starts on monday, and who was kind enough to inform me that he really can't guarantee what the landscaping my wife and I have perfected over the last 20 years will look like after his boys drag the wood and branches out, and then left me all alone to explain this to the wife when she got back from her school... so who got it in the neck as if he had conspired with Mother Nature to wreck havoc in the flower beds? Yup, that would be me.... so now try and find some spare change for yet another piece of sharpened metal. It better be of some use in a garden or forget about that. I'm just lucky I got a few orders in before the storm.