"Cause of DIA disaster discovered," what is it about the news media and their titles? Anyway, it seems while the construction crews were digging around, they found a weakness in the structural support. They are blaming this weakness for having caused the plane to suddenly veer into the building from a parked position. That something came lose under the tire and the plane rolled and crashed into the building. The weakness itself might have been an even worse disaster had it not gone undetected. So now we're supposed to be happy that this happened, otherwise it would have been worse.
I'm still not sure I'm convinced by that, I remember seeing the video's and the plane moved. It didn't fall. Either way, with this new discovery the construction crew is reporting more work, and longer repair times.
So I get home from work and Max has come over 'cause she was almost our third sister when we were growing up. Batel repeated her complaints from this morning and we all discussed the news. Of course Max had to bring up her conspiracy theories which reminded Batel of the tree. Next thing I knew we were on our way to see it, again. So not telling Candice or Sam about this, I don't care if they've apologized and we've patched things up.
That said, even the parents were concerned about us going. It's only been a few days since the last attempt to cut it down. I think they're right to be concerned though, we were still seeing evidence from the rioting that had happened last week. To the day, now that I think about it.
The tree itself is still standing, but man alive is that one trunk scarred. Even still, it is a testament to how strong the ironwood is. The thing is, as we were walking up from the parking garage, I started seeing what I wanted to say were fireflies. Which is strange, I don't think we have fireflies in Colorado. And even if we did, they wouldn't be out this time of year.
At first I hesitated to ask Max or Batel if they were seeing 'em to. But I had to remind myself that if I'm hallucinating, I need to know for certain. So I sucked it up and asked, "Are you guys seeing this?" They asked "what?" of course, and I directed their attention up where the lights were flying above us. Now that it's getting dark earlier, the lights were pretty visible. To my relief they said yes and were as troubled by it as I was. They started counting them though, and it became apparent that they weren't seeing anywhere near as many as I was. I think I easily saw ten times as many as they were counting.
As we got closer to the tree, I was noticing more and more people looking up at the lights. I also noticed that there were far more surrounding the boughs of the tree and flying amongst them. Still, it seems people were only seeing a portion of the ones I saw. Which makes me wonder what it is I was seeing. Multiple images? Like seeing double? It's a little troubling, and I'll have to remember that next time I see Dr. Laurie.
I did notice people had their phones and cameras out and were trying to take pictures. Max did too, but was only partially successful. Actually, she was extremely successful. The pictures she took showed everything I saw, but because she wasn't seeing it without the camera she thought her camera was broken or something. I'm not sure what to make of that, if there is a hardware issue with her camera, maybe that's what my little death is doing to me.
Anyway, the lights weren't the only thing concerning for us. Each time I've been down here, looking up into the branches of the tree has filled me with a sense of peace. And maybe I haven't mentioned it before, but despite being a deciduous tree, the cottonwood should have shed it's leaves by now. This ironwood still has all it's leaves, even on the trunk that was scarred up by the logging rig. Tonight it seemed that the leaves were rustling in the wind. And I know that breezes can affect trees higher up where we don't feel the wind on the ground. But this seemed different somehow. Despite the nearby park, there weren't any other trees close enough to compare, but it didn't seem like there was any wind to cause the tree to sway like that. This seemed more like a cat when it's agitated, how the tale flicks back and forth. Only in this case it was the branches of the tree.
When Max was happy with her pictures I started suggesting maybe we should get home. It was getting late. I don't know if Batel felt it too, but she agreed with me. Max took one last look up into the tree's canopy and I'm pretty sure she missed the peaceful feeling as well. So we took off.
Got home in time to share dinner with Max, it was almost like high school all over again. We had a lot of fun, and Max and I reminded each other and invited Batel to join us on Wednesday for dinner. Batel does have to leave in the morning, so we can't stay out late, but plans are made.
I just can't get that agitated feeling out of my head though. I'm scarred that the next time they try to cut the tree down, something's going to happen. And thinking back to the crowd of people there, I think they felt it too. It was dark, so understandably there weren't many people there. But it seemed like there should have been more. It seemed like people were leaving without staying longer. The protesters didn't even have the presence they've had in the past, and I didn't see any of the counter-protesters.
I need to get to bed, one last day of work before my weekend.
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