DAY 220
11.10.07
TREE 144
I got this morning with a plan. A mission. I had to get this yard sale up and sell stuff. And so I did. Pricing things was a little difficult. I learned as I went. Everyone wants a deal and everyone talks you down. So never price the item at what you want to get for it. Also, don’t have expensive items at a yard sale in a very low income neighborhood. My first sale made me feel awful. A big old woman took two musical instruments that were gifts to me at the combined total of $7. But my situation put me in a tough spot. Sell now cheap or give away for free later. After that it got a little easier, and the day was sunny and clear. Amazing for Portland. Rachel and I had a nice time hanging out, talking, throwing a football. After many hours of the yard sale we packed it up and called it quits. I needed to climb a tree. Rachel and Abbey joined me as the night began to set in. I chose a maple tree just beyond the playground by a street light.
I thought the light would help with my exposure times. And though I wanted to climb this tree, I couldn’t climb up it without help. Rachel gave me a boost to reach the first big branch. From there the climb was easy. All the leaves around me appeared to be yellow. Though later, I realized it was the yellowish light that made it appear that way. Even the leaf I picked I thought was yellow but actually is brown.
I climbed up the tree and about half way up the leaves disappeared.
The top half was bare while the bottom half full of leaves.
It was quite strange. From below you couldn’t tell. Like many trees around here, the bark was covered in growth. Which actually made for great pictures once I reached the top. The leaves took on the glow of the lamp while the growth on the bark reflected the night’s blue sky.
Very cool pictures. I followed my regular routine then climbed down.
Only instead of getting help as I had done to get up, I just hugged the wide trunk and slithered down to the ground. Though the climb wasn’t too hard, it was the great photos that made this climb so great. Rachel and I had a good talk this evening that put us on the right path towards friendship.
11-10-08: That one comment about expensive items in low income neighborhood sounds kind of bad to me right now. Let me clarify… no one ever brought nearly enough money to purchase my amp with was cheap for an amp… real cheap. There just wasn’t interest in those higher prices items. Some people said they would come back with more money and never did. So I took my music equipment to a music exchange store and took a huge loss on stuff. My drums, which new were $750, were bought for $150. They did take my piece of crap bass… for $10. I also bought a new special hard case for my Hagstrom electric guitar for plane travel. It cost me $120 and I didn’t get a receipt. It broke in the airport before I was about to check it. I had to wrap it in tape. I am sure I will be bitching about that in a few entries from this one.
Finally… caught up on my blogging and I can talk about yesterday’s climb. It was nasty yesterday. Grey and cold and I just did not want to leave the house. Drew and I finished winter proofing the house and were hoping that is going to save us some money. Dinner plans were canceled with the neighbors and I made plans to meet my mom at Cafe Lou Lou at 6. Just before I took a shower to raise my core temperature, then bundled up for the bike ride. It was cold but I was covered head to toe and biked hard to keep warm. Dinner was good and we talked for a while about Obama and other things. When dinner was over I got all geared up and began to look for a tree to climb. I kind of just wanted to get it over with nearby the restaurant and then go home. I rode around just minutes before finding a wonderfully huge oak tree in font of a church off Shelbyville Road.
I leaned my bike up against the large trunk and used it like a ladder to get to the first branch. From there it was a good challenge to navigate through the larger limbs up into the smaller ones. I got up really high and the cold wind blew me in them. It made for some pretty crazy shots.
I love climbing in the cold. It warms me up and I stop thinking about how cold I am and realize that it’s really beautiful out. And once my hands go numb they stop hurting. I took some shots that came out clear and some with a flash as well.
When I had taken all I could at the top I started to climb down. I stopped about halfway down when I was in the larger branches by the trunk and took a few more pictures.
I climbed the rest of the way down and dropped to the ground rather than trying to use my bike as a ladder for the way down. I got back on my bike and went home through Seneca, Cherokee, and down the Beargrass Creek trail in the deep darkness of night. I have a little bike light but it doesn’t do much. I mostly used the glow of the city to stay on the paths. It was really fun going as fast as I can. No cars passed me at all through all of Cherokee Park. I was pretty pumped when I got home and took me a while to wind down.