The Windy City

**Finally, I'm starting with June - June 13th to be specific....**

The Windy City

There are many urban, and true, legends of how Chicago got it’s nickname. The gusts of wind that come off of Lake Michigan and freezes the snot inside your nose in one theory. The other is attributed to the long winded speeches of local politicians – although I’m not sure if Mayor Daley can actually string together enough coherent sentences to be considered long winded (don’t worry, I really do love Mayor Daley!). The truth however behind the reason we are called the Windy City lies within the 2” root system of our trees.

It’s June 13th and nothing says summer and school’s out like a trip to DQ with the kids, when my phone rings. “Hey Su, it’s Tracy.” Tracy is our awesome neighbor who keeps an eagle eye for all things deemed important on our neighborhood and has come to our rescue more than once. “Hate to tell you this, but remember that tree in front of your house? Yeah, well, it’s on top of Jennifer’s car.” What? Grr…and thus is the story of living in the Windy City, where anyone can merely blow on a tree around our house and feel like David knocking out Goliath with a sling shot. Let me explain.

Many, many years ago, while our garage was being repaired, our neighbor allowed us to park our new car on their parking pad. While having dinner and looking out the back window, Dave notices that there is a slight breeze in the air. Well, that ‘breeze’ picked up a 50’ tree, with a 2” root system and promptly crushed our new car of two weeks in half, totaling it.

Last year, Jack lost his toe-nail. After putting his toe-nail under his pillow (eewww….) and waiting for the toe-nail fairy to arrive, we hear a loud thumb and crash in the front of the house in the early, wee hours of the morning. Yes, it appeared that the toe-nail fairy crashed into yet another 50’ tree with a 2” root system and toppled the tree over like a toothpick.

So there you have it – the real reason why Chicago is called The Windy City is merely a mirage; it’s all because the trees fall down (but apparently only at our house) just by looking at them the wrong way. And yes, we blame it on the wind…err, The Windy City.