DAY 159

With all the going ons of my show I didn’t take the time to look ahead and see where I was going to be climbing today. When I did finally look it was the tree at Norman’s with the duck box.

I told Norman and it was just too short of a notice to plan something. So I had to just drive over there by myself when he wasn’t home to climb the tree. I waited till after 4pm because I set up a TV in the clay studio and watched myself on FOX 41 News. A pretty corny and cheesy way to present the story, but amazing nonetheless to be on TV. I headed to Norman’s and walked right over to the tree. This large, decaying tree had bald limbs where all the bark had since died and flaked off. The branches that are alive are covered in mossy and fungal growth.

It made for quite a messy climb. Thank god it wasn’t wet or I wouldn’t have been able to do what I did. After checking the duck box for ducks (none to see) I had two options: continue up and over like I had the first climb, or take the branch at the dock box level up to my mark. Basically, the latter would be the path I took back down on the first climb. To vary it up, I chose the second option which was a pretty easy cat crawl and I was to my ribbon before I knew it.

I took a seat, bouncing a little way out on this limb. There was a great view of Norman’s house and his new burgandy colored steel roof.


I went back up on to my feet and turned around ready to go up further. I so badly wanted to improve on my previous height. Either way, up or down, I had to return to the trunk. So I looked at the path I had yet to take today. The transfer offered little to hold onto. Trying a few different positions to go down, I ultimately chose going down head first on my stomach. Definitely the most dirty but fun and safe(kinda) method. After slithering downward to a fork in the branch I returned to my feet. Again I scanned for a path up but the limbs were either too far apart or dead.

I resigned my efforts and climbed the rest of the way down. Reclimbing in the reverse path of my original climb. Still fun, scary, and exciting. And the hot 90 degree weather has finally broken.

9-11-08:  I missed a day of blogging due to a busy day with Norman.  We started work on the Zephyr deck.  We had to go get some lumber and on the way stopped and bought a truckload of Jackson County seedless watermelons.  After we finished work on the deck we drove around different places selling watermelons out of the back of Norm’s truck.  We got about 150 for $100 and sold them 1 for $3 or 2 for $5.  We figured it’d be an evening of easy money.  Only we only sold about 20 so we didn’t even make back our investment.  It was fun talking to people and people watching.  Plus it was just nice to sit on the side of the road and hang out with Norman.  

So on Tuesday I drove back to Louisville from my parents place and immediately hopped on my bike and headed to Cherokee Park.  Just going a few days without biking I really start to miss it.  So I went around the park loop twice before stopping at Hogan’s Fountain to get a drink and find a tree.  I walked over by the playground and saw this tree that had one single branch sticking up at the top.

I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to get to that branch but I wanted to try.  I imagined it would be a great spot to view this area of the park.  No leaves in the way.  I locked up my bike and went up the trunk.  There was a small limb low enough to reach by jumping.  I pulled myself up and started to climb up the branches.  I soon saw why this tree was so strangely shaped.  It must have been struck by lightning and lost a major section of the tree.  There were also some dead and broken stubs of other limbs.  

I did make it up to the top limb having to use some of the dead branches, but they held.

I shimmied up the limb and looked out from my perch.  I had a great view of the practicing peewee football team, surrounding trees, and the beautiful sky.







There were some teenagers wrestling each other by the playground and spotted me.  I heard one of them say, "who the hell is that guy?"  That was I could make out of their conversation.  I was very visible.  If you can imagine seeing that top limb with a person on it.  It was a great little spot.  I was surprised that none of the football kids or coaches seemed to see me.  After enjoying my view I began to climb down and made it to the ground fine.  But I keep forgetting to hang upsidedown.  I was doing that for a while but I keep forgetting.  My back has been bothering me still but when I climb it feels so much better the pain isn’t there to remind me to do so.