Pruning the Palm Trees and Fixing Umbrellas

I didn't know that some palm trees need to be pruned. The other day I heard all this noise and talking outside our bedroom balcony and went to see what it was. I'm glad that I was dressed for the day because as I came around the corner into the bedroom there was a man in a bucket, who turned his head and looked at me as I came to the sliding glass door. He was using a small chainsaw to cut all the dead fronds off the tree. They worked on several trees for several hours and then packed up and went away.

Later the umbrella repair/knife sharpener guy came along blowing his flute and looking for customers. This is a job that is a cultural heritage type of thing that they don't want to let die out - the government pays these guys a wage to push the bike around and play this type of pan flute to let people know they are in the neighborhood. (Remember the ice cream trucks that used to go around neighborhoods when we were kids, playing music to let you know they were coming?) Usually on the weekends he is out playing the flute earlier than he should be but I guess on this Saturday he had to wait until later in the day to do his rounds as no one could have heard his flute above the chain saw noise.