A near disaster occurred this afternoon while on our walk at the park.  It's been a very blustery day with winds up to 40 mph.  It's the kind of day that topples old, brittle trees, and Sacramento is the City of Trees.  As we walked around the back of our park I purposely walked the dogs well out of range of the old cork tree and other tall trees for fear a branch might break as we passed beneath it.  With the extremely dry year we've had, trees splinter like match sticks in a high wind like we've had today.  They fall on houses, cars, and sometimes people, or even dogs.

As we headed back to the car I decided not to walk our usual way past the tall trees that line the sidewalk and instead led the dogs the other way past the picnic area where the trees are younger and not laden with heavy branches.  Just as I loaded the dogs into the car, I heard a loud crack from the other side of the park and glanced in time to see a tree split right in half.  It fell at the exact spot where we would have been moments earlier if I'd chosen to walk that way. I might not have been hit because the tree barely missed the sidewalk, but the dogs surely would have been because they'd have been sniffing under the tree where Bubba always liked to stop and sniff.  Either I am psychic and had a premonition about a falling tree or our guardian angel was watching over us today.