Trailer Tree

I’m lucky to have a family that indulges me my quirks, not all of which are all that quirky—like liking to get up early on Sunday mornings to ride bikes—some of which, though, are sorta weird—like preferring to watch football games with the sound off, and some of which are downright squirrelly—like putting jelly and mustard on a cheese sandwich.

But after 20 years of marriage and 10 years of fatherhood, Jen and Mimi, respectively, are relatively sanguine about my oddball desires for this or that, just so long as those desires don’t get in the way of their own, at least not too much.

So today, for instance, they put up with my insistence on picking up this year’s Christmas tree on the bike trailer. Last year, my Haulin’ Colin rig wasn’t ready for the holidays, but I was determined to use it this time around to carry our Noble Fir from the Xmas tree lot to our home.

Since hiking out through snow-covered hills in order to chop down a fir tree with an axe isn’t really a possibility, using human power to bring back the holiday bush seemed to me to be the reasonable alternative. And it felt great, bungie-cording the fine-smelling branches to the trailer and then riding smoothly through the chilly evening with the tree riding safely behind my bike.

I had this fantasy that I would offer my services to the volunteer-run organization—Seattle Aids Alliance—from whom we traditionally buy our tree; if I were a better person, I’d hang out and offer to bike home people’s trees for a small donation to the cause. Instead, I’m satisfied that, at least in our case, we did our little part to offset the carbon debt created by cutting down our tree.

On the other hand, if we bury it when we’re done, then I guess we’ve captured some carbon, so good for us, especially, if I manage to bike it to the dump.