November first of every year our little town ends up with a light up wire christmas tree plugged in at the top of every other pole on the main road. It turns out its the elctric company that does it. It ends up looking like something out of harry potter. In the pitch dark its like a floating row of trees in the sky. I look forward to it every year. Its what gets you in the mood for the holidays. Well, november first came and went. Bandera put their bell decorations up, comfort put up theirs, fredericksburg put up stars…i started to wonder if ours had gone down the river in the flood. My half of the town was serviced by the electric company in kerrville while the other half was supplies by bandera. Kerrville had flooded during the july fourth flood and i knew our electric company’s storage warehouse had been affected. I wondered if the light up floating trees had gone down the river in the flood. Other people in town had noticed the absence of the trees too and a neighbor inquired at the next town meeting as to their whereabouts. We were all relieved to find out they hadnt gone down the river. The electric company was buying more for us this year but they hadnt arrived yet and they were only going to go out for install once so they’d be putting up the decorations in our small town on december 1, a month later than usual. November felt strange without them and it was hard to get in the holiday mood. I was terribly worried that the new ones would be bells or stars or ribbons…not our signature green christmas trees as they had always been. I figured they might not have such an aversion to change as i did. I worried myself nuts about those new lights possibly not being trees and then the night of december first guess what there was now a million of?! Identical in size shape, and color floating green christmas trees! There was now one on every pole up the highway leading into the town from both directions, down the main street, past the cemetary, and even past the elementary school down china street. A green floating christmas tree in the sky on every single pole on both sides of the street. Everyone called around to see if their neighbors had seen the abundance of green lit up trees we now had! I mean the electric company really came through with all those light up trees! I am so glad they’re not red or white or bells or candles or angels or stars. Those green trees, we’ve always had them, and we’re the only town around that does. For whatever reason they do a combination of gold, red, and white bells, candles, ribbons, and stars for the other town they service but for us, they’ve always put up green christmas trees and it looks like a floating enchanted forest in the sky, and none of us wanted it to change. Its been a hard year. When i go to the river to eat lunch in my car on a forced half day…the trees are still scraggly and sideways. The shape of the river is now clogged with sand banks and big shoreside mounds of rock and mud material that was washed down from other cities and caught here by the dam. Its not pretty to look at anymore. Its kind of strange, wide, shallow, and bulky. The water is not the deep color it is when theres some depth before the bottom. The trees are still sideways and look like they’ve been part of a hurricane. Its been a rough year. Im just saying, we needed those christmas tree lights and the electric company came through.