DAY 224
11.14.07
TREE 148
Back at my parents’ house, I’m officially "with stuff." All my damn stuff. Even though I got rid of a lot in Portland, I’ve come back home to find so much more. I’ve dumped everything I bought back into a mess on the floor. I have no where to put it. And there is something about this house that makes me sleep in, procrastinate, be lazy. I’ve fallen back into bad habits of wasting time. I can’t really tell you what I did with my day. The only productive thing I got done was to climb a tree. And now I’ve got a whole new territory to explore around my parents’ place. I walked outside in the cool grey and windy day. Leaves were really flying off the trees. I walked left on Cedar Point then took a right on Schrader Lane.
A large tree caught my eye 50 feet down the road just off to the right side. As I approached the leaves were falling en masse.
Two hit my face when I got close, and surprisingly, it kind of hurt. I walked around the split trunk then stepped in. I picked my path and began to make my way up the branches.
Once I got to my high point I tied my ribbon then got ready to shoot some pictures.
As I looked around I saw 50-100 turkey vultures circling around in the sky.
It was amazing. Some came as close as right over head while others seemed to be a mile or more in the distance.
It looked as if they were coming home to roost. I took alot of pictures of them.
Another great thing about climbing a tree everyday is that I see things I wouldn’t have otherwise seen. And not necessarily because of my perspective but just because I went outside and ventured to somewhere I have never been to. Some of the best sights and finds have come on the walk to and from climbing. Just getting outside and experiencing is wonderful. It’s like being a kid again. Especially now in this vortex of time-suck I get in at this house. It’s great to escape and do something worthwhile.
11-14-08: Maybe it’s this time of year because I am experiencing the same time-suck vortex currently. I can’t help but sleep in and I want oh so much to be productive but most often just get this here blog done and a tree climbed. Though, lately those climbs have been pretty awesome. And I bike to get to them so I am being active. I am also much better at establishing and following bad habits than I am at good ones. They are all house related, so I often try to force myself out of the house to avoid those habits. But when it’s cold, dark, rainy, it’s damn hard to get me to leave.
Thought I’d also give a little bit of info about Turkey Vultures. Actually I am going to link it here. Thanks Wikipedia! I will add that they roost in the empty lot behind my parents’ house. Most nights around dusk you can see them circling in for the night. They are large black birds with ugly faces and they just sleep in groups in the high branches of the tall trees.
They are protected so don’t shoot ’em! They also do a great job of cleaning up the road kill. Enough about the birds.
I had another great climb yesterday. It was getting late and I wanted to get out there before the sun went down. And I wanted to new place to explore. At first I thought I’d check out what the woods off the Beargrass Creek bike trail had to offer. But the damn trail was closed. So I went down Spring Street to where it dead ends at Lexington Ave. I thought at first I would just go to Cherokee and find something there but I really wanted a new spot. So just where the big brick wall of the Cave Hill Cemetery begins, I went off road. There are woods and a creek that run by the cemetery. I locked my bike up on a bush and ventured down to the water. On the way I passed an old abandoned tent, lots of trash, a sleeping bag and pillow (that looks to be freshly slept in), and a silver tarp. Looks like some pretty damp homeless shelters. Everything was very dark and saturated from the recent rain. I walked around for a bit looking at trees and trying a few out. But most weren’t right, too slippery, or just not promising. Then, as it usually does, the tree I climbed hit me. I knew it was it when I saw it.
A hackberry with two main trunks and a small tree growing right next to it making a good ladder into the larger tree. Once I climbed the small tree and got into the hackberry I looked up both trunks.
The one I was on was not the one I wanted. I stepped across the space between and got to the other trunk. Then it was a whole lot of shimmying. The branches were strong but very far apart. I had to shimmy up to reach each branch, then pull myself up to hook a foot and stand up. It was a great challenge but showed that all my recent shimmying in other trees has prepared my muscles for this. I hate to sound self-congratulating, but I was damn agile in the tree yesterday. I impressed myself and went higher then I first thought I could when I was looking from the bottom. And I had a great view.
The sun was just over the horizon, the skyline was yet again visible and colored by the setting light, I could see the Lexington/Payne intersection, a field of graves in the cemetery, and the creek and foliage below.
I swayed a little at the top and really enjoyed myself up in the tree.
And everything was just so beautiful and colorful. Then I realized it was my sunglasses. Not to say what I was looking at wasn’t pretty, but my lenses are this certain color that heightens the warm colors making the sunset and the turning leaves way more powerful and bright than they actually are. Anyway, it was still an incredible climb and really fun to slide down to the ground. I was dirty and sweaty, but it was so worth it.