Snow days. We never grow out of appreciating them. I love when weather gets in the way of yard work, but then again, I hate yard work.
To piggyback on that, and the subject of the thread, the choice in greenery is so confusing to me. I forget the type of tree now, but we had a tree that dropped tiny buds that both clumped and would singly find their way onto shoes, socks, rugs, and plugging rain pipes as they basically turn to mud with a little water; then tiny leaves drop that stuck like double-faced tape to the bottom of shoes, and plug rain pipes; then drop all the tiny 1-2" branches that the leaves were on, creating their own mess. And that was just late spring. The leaves and tiny branches/spines would again drop in fall. On top of all that, the branches are weak, so with any significant wind or thunderstorm, this tree litters the yard with broken branches. The bigger branches also tending to split at some point, falling through roofs, crushing cars in the driveway.
Every tree is work, but who in their right mind would purposely plant a tree that drops three different things in spring, two different things in fall, is so weak in structure that you have a garbage can of branches every time a big storm rolls through the area. I don't understand why anyone would plant this kind of tree in their yard. Why would anyone plant this cottonwood tree you're describing in their yard? A masochist? I person who loves to give themselves work? An idiot? Does zero thought go into the maintenance when landscaping?