incandescens | chainsaws and Christmas trees

Today's highlight involved chainsaws. Or perhaps that should be lowlight. It was dramatic but not overly nice.

(No, it didn't involve someone in a mask chasing me with one. Tch.)

I was walking through Winchester from the railway station to get to work this morning, when I noticed that the big Christmas tree that was standing in a main area near the Buttercross (small civic monument) was lying on its side. So of course I had to try to work out what had happened. The crushed ornaments and lights suggested it hadn't gone down deliberately, or at least, not as part of any civic redecoration scheme. Looking at what was left of the trunk protruding from the base they'd stuck it in, I could see it was sawed across fairly flat, except for a upwards chunk to the edge at one side, which was presumably where it had finally broken due to its weight during the sawing and gone over.

Proceeded to work.

Later found out that apparently someone had used a chainsaw on it last night. That's right. They'd taken a chainsaw to the town Christmas tree.

How very . . . mean-spirited.

(There were signs up asking if anyone had seen or heard anything, when I passed back the same way this evening. To be fair, I can understand if there weren't any witnesses; it's in the middle of a shopping area, not a zone where people actually live directly on top of it.)

Otherwise, work was quite busy. Went through meeting this morning at warp speed, then waved goodbye to departing rest of team (after exchanging ritual Christmas cards) and got down to queries accumulated over the last couple of days. Actually, this is good. Having too much spare time in the run-up to Christmas, especially when you've signed up to work up to and including Christmas Eve, is just depressing. Better to be moderately busy.

Though not too busy.

---

HEVN : One word of advice, Natsumi-chan. Don't go for the ukes. Their semes get ... aggressive.
NATSUMI: Okay! ...um.. What's an uke?
HEVN : Have you ever seen Ban-kun beat up Gin-chan, dear, and Gin-chan go all teary-eyed and hug him while whimpering, "Ban-chan!!!"?
NATSUMI: *nodnod* Yes, I have...?
HEVN : Well, Natsumi-chan, the one who gets all possessive and dominant and rude is what we call the seme, and the one who hugs him and whimpers, or who does whatever he says, is the one we call the uke.
NATSUMI: Aaah, I see. So..um.. Wait! *distressed* Does that mean that Shido-san is mean to Madoka-chan when we're not looking? Because he's very terrytr.. territorrent.. um.. possessive!
HEVN : Well, the seme doesn't _have_ to be mean and nasty, Natsumi-chan. It's only with rude people like Ban-kun that they go round beating the other person up.
NATSUMI: *looks dubious and worried, fingers her ping-pong paddle* Are you certain? Because if he's mean to Madoka-chan, I am going to play ping-pong with him whether he wants to or not!
HEVN : (sweating) The next phrase I need to explain to you, Natsumi-chan, is "whipped". This means that the "seme" does whatever the "uke" tells him to do, right away, without even thinking about arguing. And we both know that Shido mends Madoka's roof and puts out her garbage, don't we?
NATSUMI: Hmm. Ye-ees... He does do that. Oh! And he went shopping with her last week! *beam!* Okay, so Shido is okay, I guess.

-- solaas and incandescens