DAY 215

DAY 215
11.05.07
TREE 139

Back to work today. It was pretty easy. We drove around and did a couple jobs then back to the shop. We had some time so I followed Mike to Fern Valley Road to drop off a crane truck at the maintenance shop. I hate to say it, but that’s been the best part of the job so far, just driving in my own truck listening to music. Then I cleaned some saws, swept the shop floor, and got my ten hours. I headed home, relaxed, had some dinner then had to go to therapy. It was an interesting session. Pretty good actually. I won’t go into that. After the meeting it was about 9:15 at night. I didn’twant to go far to find a tree so I just drove down Frankfort Ave. As I drove I thought the Masonic Homes would be a good place to climb. So I turned off Frankfort to a street on the right and parked. Then I crossed the road and the railroad tracks into the main entrance of the property. I walked carefully in the shadows of the trees and I hid when cars approached. I didn’t want to be hassled for trespassing. Then I spotted a nice big beech tree by the fence. I walked over to it quickly and saw that I could get in on a big low branch. Up I went. From there I had lots of options out the large, sprawling limbs but not many up to the treetop. I tried to get as high as I could but from my vantage point was more intrigued by the longer branches and crawling out on those limbs.

So I went back down and out towards the railroad tracks. I didn’t get as far out as I would have liked but I took some pictures and tied my ribbon.

Then I climbed a little further down to another limb. I started to climb out on that one but didn’t feel safe so I stopped and climbed down to the ground. It is a nice big tree but the climb was no great accomplishment. I guess I was somewhat limited by the lack of light and my fear of getting caught or hassled by someone. It was also pretty late and I wanted to get home to get to bed at a decent hour. It will be an early day tomorrow then I have to get ready for Portland.

11-8-08: I believe this is the point in the year where I start to flirt with the idea of sharing more. I become more open about being in therapy, yet share nothing. The trip to Portland to get my stuff was hard. I guess I was a little nervous to go. Portland just represented a bad time in my life. I had the worse job as a lamp store stockroom manager, I was doing no art, and just was not happy. I had no friends outside of Rachel. But before that trip I think I was also overwhelmed by what I was trying to accomplish. I had a few days to go through all my belongings and sell and discard everything I didn’t absolutely need. All that I kept had to go with me on the plane or get shipped back to Kentucky. It was incredibly nice of Norman and Jennifer to come along to help. I can’t believe it’s been a whole year.

To a happier experience: Tuesday’s climb. Drew and I threw an Election Results Party. We cleverly named it Barack the Election: BYObama. I decided early on that I would wait until the race was called to climb. That is unless it wasn’t called before midnight. Thankfully it was called at 11pm when the west coast states poll stations closed and Obama had a clear victory. Champagne bottles were popped and cheers heard. I soon ran out back to the maple tree I have climbed a few times before and got right to climbing. At the top I was a little too excited to make very clear pictures in the dark.

I did, however, make a video. If you are sensitive to curse words, please close your years around 1:05.

I believe my words in the video say what I need to about this election. The climb was nothing special, but the night sure was.