Dignified oak versus dorky woman

Looking out the back window you can see the amazing branches of the oak tree, that year by year stretches its long arms out closer and closer to the back of our house. They almost touch, the branches of the oak and the wooden railing of the deck. In fact the oaks all around this place have long horizontal reaches that astound me with their strength. How hard can it be, I wondered, to hold your arms out for a long period of time?


So this afternoon I was the only one here besides Ed and Reub. Although they may look at me quizzically when I do something out of the ordinary, they never laugh at me or question my sanity, always trusting that I know what I'm doing. Isn't that nice? Man's best friend.

Anyway, I tried to see how long I could hold my arms out horizontally--which turned out to be exactly 7 minutes and 20 seconds. I had to quit because I was getting a little achy and also bored. Oak trees must have tremendous capacity for this long, still activity! This tree is maybe 200 years old, which means that if it were a competition the score would have been:

Oak tree---200
Me-.000000007

Well never mind. At least I got to scan a drawing with my new scanner. Would an oak tree know what to do with a scanner? I think not. I still wish I could hold my arms out like that though.