DAY 226
11.16.07
TREE 150
It’s Friday! My third week in a row where I only worked two days of the week. And best thing is… I got another two day work week this coming week. Today we went back to the "Stumpery" off Newburg Road. Then we went to a house very near where Rachel used to live. A bunch of Greenhaven guys were there grinding stumps. At one point we all stopped working and they started to talk. About nothing in particular, just talking like friends, and I stayed silent like an observer. I just had nothing to say. Maybe I should have tried. Oh well. I guess I [illegible] to my feeling that I don’t relate to my co-workers.
After work I went home, changed, and did some stuff online. Then it started to get dark. I was planning on going downtown for an art opening at Swanson Reed so I went HWY 42. I pulled off at North Oldham High School and climbed a tree right off the parking lot. People were leaving so when I walked up to the tree I wanted to get up in it fast so as not to be seen. But the lowest limb was too high to jump for. The trunk was a good width to inch up like a koala. I got a good grip with my hands then wrapped my legs around tightly. Little by little I’d inch my hands then my legs. I reached the first limb and pulled myself up. The rest of the climb was poky.
Lots of little pointy twigs got in my way. I broke many of them on the way up and down. The leaves on this tree are a beautiful redish-brownish-orangish color.
I made it very high up towards the top and got a nice hole in the leaves to capture what was left of the sunset.
Unfortunately I didn’t get any good views of school so you really can’t tell I was at one. I then climbed down and at the bottom was careful to wait for a break in the cars to drop. I don’t want to get the parents worried for their kids’ safety. Then off I went to a night of art, drinking, pizza, and YouTube.
11-16-08: That was one of the most illegible entries I have ever written. It was also not very good. I tried for ever to figure out what I wrote about the "relating to my co-workers" line. I couldn’t even figure it out from the context and there are two words in a row, possibly three, that I can’t make out. That is so bad. I really hope that my writing doesn’t continue to deteriorate as the entries go on. Other than that, I think the pizza and YouTube came at the end of the night when Will and I went to MaryLiz’s. I could be wrong, but I spent a lot of nights hanging out and spending hours watching funny stuff on YouTube. It’s really easy to do.
Yesterday was another nasty and rainy day. I got a text message from NJ that Amazing Grace had free food till 4pm. I suited up in my rain gear and biked over for somefree lunch. After filling up on some pretty good vegan food and snagging a free tooth paste sample I biked over to Cherokee Triangle and climbed a bright red maple tree.
It isn’t too big but I didn’t want a very challenging climb since I knew it was going to be very wet, slippery, and cold. I locked up my bike then walked over to the tree. I took off my sunglasses and again, realized that the tree seemed so much brighter with them on. I took a picture half through the lens so you call see the different.
It really makes those red fall leaves pop. But even with the glasses off, this tree still had some nice bright color.
I was shooting as I approached then noticed the trunk.
It was splitting very badly almost down to the ground. Rather than picking another tree since this could be potentially disasterous, I decided to climb the side that looked stronger.
I started in on the low branch and it was really very slippery and covered in some green growth that caused the slickness.
I went up limb to limb and my hands started to hurt from the damp cold. Plus they were getting completely black from the slippery goo.
I made it up pretty high, but not to the top. I was fine with that because I didn’t need to be risking too much in these conditions. As I pulled my camera out of my bag a gust of wind came and tossed me a little. I got extremely nervous that any strong winds could stress the split and cause a fall. I just held on and hoped that if anything went, it was the other side. I took a lot of pictures of the leaves because they were really nice against the contrast of the grey day.
Then when I was finished I climbed down using the slippery limbs to my advantage. It made my clothes filthy but I have come to terms that all my clothes with get dirty and messed up. I was happy the climb went without a problem and warmed up for the ride back home.
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