DAY 247

DAY 247
12.07.07
TREE 171

Finally!  I climbed a Gingko tree.  I did tree work at this house on Primrose near where Rachel’s parents used to live.  In there yard was a beautiful, big Gingko tree with such an inviting limb structure.  I had these thoughts of dressing in all black and going over there at night.  I’d park down the street and sneak up for the climb.  But since the day I saw that tree I have had the desire to climb one.  Well, it was First Friday today and I met up with Will and we checked out some art.  Ir was a pretty decent collection of shows this month.  Better than usual.  Once we hit most of what we wanted to see on the Market Street strip I focused on finding a tree.  We were walking on the north side of the street and I started to notice yellow Gingko leaves on the street and side walk.  I looked around but couldn’t find where they had come from.  Then when we passed the church across the street from Will’s mom’s studio I saw a bunch of these leaves on the ground.  I looked up and there it was, a nice big Gingko growing out of a little patch of turf in front of the church. 

I saw and path and that was it.  I walked over and jumped for the first limb.  But I slipped off.  It had been raining off and on and was drizzling a little at the time, and apparently rain makes Gingko bark very slippery.  So I reset with that in mind and jumped again.  I held tight and spread my legs.  Only I spread them too wide and my body swung in.  The result was a direct collision of my crotch and the trunk.  I thought, OH NO! but it really didn’t hurt so I just continued to make my way up this limb.  I got up another step to where the trunk began to split and it hit me… the pain.  I don’t really understand how or why testicular pain is so delayed.  I paused, mentioned it to Will, and then it passed. 

I continued higher picking which leader to follow to get to the highest point.  I didn’t have a lot of options.  One way was pretty much it.  I had to be very careful because it was so slippery and I really took my time.  Will took a dead stick I had thrown down at him and began fencing and imaginable foe.  I got to a stopping point, saw another limb that could take me higher so I transferred carefully.  Once there I was stuck again. 

It was too risky to stay put in this rain so I transferred back a branch to tie my ribbon and take my pictures.  The shots were great with all the lights of downtown and the hustle bustle of the Gallery Hop. 

I didn’t get incredibly high but it was great to climb a tree right in the middle of Louisville’s hot gallery strip. 

Plus, it was a Gingko and that really satisfied me. 

I took special care in choosing one of the few remaining leaves still holding on, then carefully climbed back down.  It was a great climb with a good rest of the night.  I had good food with Will and his parents and the members of a bluegrass band that played there that night. Then I stayed up till 5am playing some video games Will wanted me to try out. 

12-10-08:  I am trying to think of the shows that I liked from that hop a year ago.  I believe it was Joel Pinkerton’s tin creatures and Peggy Sue Howard’s landscapes.  It was a really great show.  It’s been a great experience to be a member of Zephyr Gallery and get the chance to meet these artists.  Getting to know the artists that makes the work you see makes it so much better.  It gives it more meaning and provides and history or context to how it evolved.  Get to know your local artists.  You won’t regret it. 

As for the game I stayed up till the wee hours of the morning… Portal.  It’s a pretty cool game.  It’s a first person action in a 3-d world but it is more of a puzzle than a fight game.  You have to try to solve puzzles using a teleporting gun.  It’s pretty freakin’ awesome.  You should try it. 

Last Saturday Drew and I headed to Tim and Natalie’s place for a little birthday party.  Natalie was turning 25 the next day and Tim had secretly arranged a trip to Alpine Ice Rink to celebrate the occasion.  After all the party members arrived the 13 of us piled into two vehicles and off we went.  Stupidly we followed a GPS machine even though Drew and I knew exactly how to get there.  We knew Light Up Bardstown was that night and that we wanted to avoid Bardstown Road but they didn’t listen and we went stop and go through the traffic.  But really, it wasn’t that bad, we were having fun.

When we got to the rink we even passed the huge white building that said ICE RINK because the British woman never told us to "turn right."  We pulled a U-ey then parked.  I took the opportunity of people slowly piling out of cars to run over to a nearby tree that caught my eye and get my climb out of the way.  I knew this place stayed open till midnight so I figured if I waited I may miss my climb for the day. 

The tree was just on the edge of a parking lot to an apartment complex. 

It is a maple with plenty of limbs.  I pulled myself into the lowest branches and climbed up fast.  As I went I noticed that a major branch had broken off from the center of the tree. 

When I was looking around at the broken limbs something caught my eye.  Two squirrels had jumped out of their nest and were scrambling to escape the tree. 

There are power lines that run just on the edge of the limbs and they jumped on and ran away.  I am sure am glad they never attack.  At least they haven’t yet, anyway. 

I climbed as high as I could and then stopped to take pictures. 

I was in a rush, the wind was gusting violently and pushing me around, all while the freezing temperature was freezing my hands.  I wanted to be quick so I took pictures as best I could in the circumstances.  Many things came out blurry, especially the shots of the ice rink and its parking lot.

I used some flash but I was weary of calling attention to myself.  There was one resident who had come out to there car to leave and I turned my camera off and stayed still.  When he left I took my last few shots and then climbed down fast to get to skating.  I was really excited and it had been a long time since I had been. 

We all got in and got our skates.  The rink wasn’t too crowded but the music was just a pop radio station too loud on bad speakers.  We all went around in circles but mostly stood around on the ice and talked. 

There was quite a bit of falling as well.  Especially with Tim and Rob.  One second it would look like this:

Then the next this would happen:

Every so often one or two of us would go inside to take a break and keep Norman company.  He came along but was feeling very sick so he just sat on the bench and watched. 

Eventually he piled up our coats and lied down and went to sleep.  He really felt awful. 

After a while of being bored we decided to make it interesting and start races.  That was fun so we had another round.  Then we started to play games.  There was Freeze Tag, and this other game with partners, I forget what it was called.  That is when the night really started to get fun.  It culminated in a game of Capture the Hat.  I was on a team with Natalie, Natalie, and Morgan.  We played best out of three and lost but it was really fun.  We took over the rink but by this point there weren’t too many people left.  I wish I had gotten more pictures, especially during the games but I was skating hard and there was no way I wanted my camera on the ice.  Plus Norman was using my coat with my camera as a pillow. We all had a really great time but our ankles could only take so much. 

Happy 25th Natalie, I had an awesome time skating.