7m 2s | 80 view | 1 rating

Exactly 14 days after Hurricane Matthew took the giant ficus tree down (breaking a utility pole, our electrical connection weatherhead, and two fences as it went down), the city's debris cleanup contractors finally made it to our street. I was worried about what they could/would take, since you're supposed to cut stuff into 4-foot sections if possible. FPL's tree contractor removed the tree (which was actually on our neighbor's property) in order to replace the pole, and in the rush, pretty much all of it got stacked over most of our front yard. Lo and behold, the cleanup crew was great and said they would get everything they could reach. It took 3 trips (the second two had a truck with a trailer, totalling about twice the capacity of the one shown here) but they got it all. All that remains is a foot-thick layer of dead leaves and twigs. The crew was clearly enjoying their job, and I too was giddily grinning and laughing the whole time I was filming this. I guess watching big construction equipment making short work of this giant mess just brings out the little kid in me (to be fair, my "inner kid" is not exactly buried very far down). Kind of like when I had a real, metal, yellow Tonka dump truck that was sturdy enough for a 5 year old to ride on without missing a beat. The new plastic ones just ain't the same. At the end of this video, work stopped momentarily as a Marine Corps MH-53 flew over. Yes kids, big, bad-ass modern machinery does have a pecking order, and an H-53 outscores almost everything that's earthbound except steam-powered vehicles, supersonic rocket sleds, Jackie Chan on a hovercraft, and the arrival of the Papa John's car on Friday evening. Enjoy!