Tree Freak

So I was out with the chainsaw, and L* was mulching up the stuff as I was dropping it, and one of the neighbours came over to introduce himself. He's probably seen me having a discreet perv at his '66 Mustang convertible, plus I think he's seen me wondering back with an ice-cream while wearing a lava-lava, and then he sees me with a chainsaw, so he's probably a bit confused about my gender identity.

I remove my hearing protection (male -1) and put down the electric (-1) chainsaw (owned by my mother; -1), very sweaty (+1) but smelling of sunscreen (-1) as well as sawdust (+1). After doing the introductions and firm (+1) handshake, and me complimenting him on the fact that he actually drives his car, rather than polishing it and not driving it (c.f., Ferris Bueller's Day Off), he starts to tell me about the prior owner of my house. He regales me with how much this guy was a tree freak, waving his arms at what I'd consider to be a pretty normal looking area of shrubs. He's a bit interested in the mulcher, although perhaps mostly because he can't understand why I don't hire a skip and just bowl all the trees while I'm at it. I didn't have the heart to tell him that I'm probably a closet tree freak myself. My current tree vandalism is mostly so that I can replace some ones I don't like, with some ones that I do....