A Sad Day in Anolog's World.

Today, the arborist came to fell a perfectly healthy ~60 year old oak tree.
Here's the story:  About three years ago, one of the owners at our condo association came to the trustees (of which I am one) saying that in the fall that oak tree dropped acorns on his car parked in the corner of the lot and they were causing damage to the car.  He showed us the little dimples on the roof and hood of his old Honda.  The trustees inspected the dings, conferred in private, rubbed our chins thinking it couldn't be so, went to search on the internet, and discovered that the owner was correct.  Acorns can inflict damage to cars.  Not wanting to lose the big old tree, we offered him an alternative parking spot ( which he took), offered to buy him a car cover, and even offered to erect a car port at condo expense.  We thought the problem was solved - until another owner came forward complaining of the same thing.  This time the car is an Audi.  By this time, research had shown that the car port was an impractical solution from several points of view.  This owner didn't want a car cover, she just wanted the tree gone.  Feeling that we had exhausted our options, especially as there was talk of lawyers, we called our arborist.  Here is the scene when I left for work today:  crane, guy up tree with chain saw, wood chipper on the right.  This evening it was all over and there's a big hole on the skyline where that tree has lived for about the last 60 years.  I feel like a murderer.  Tomorrow I will count the rings on the stump.  We're putting in a maple to replace the poor old oak.