DAY 275
01.04.08
TREE 107
I was about to leave work 15 minutes before a full 8 hour day, but I stopped and thought I could find something to do for the last few minutes. After 5 minutes the boss found me and asked me to transfer a truckload of cardboard to another truck and take it to the recycling center. Dammit! So I did that and got back after 4pm. I worked 8 hours and 45 minutes. So when I clocked out I went straight to Seneca Park. I went into the bathroom by the playground and changed with two other old guys discussing divorce and bars.
Like the day I first climbed this tree, I walked over to the larger tree I tried to climb first.
But this time I tried one run up, failed, and abandoned that idea. I did get a holdof an overhanging limb but when I pulled it started to crack. So I just walked across the street to the tree with my ribbon.
A white oak I think. The business of getting up and in was easy.
The whole thing was pretty much cake.
And since I didn’t get that high in the tree the first time I looked
and looked
and looked
and figured, that’s as far as I’m going this time too. But this tree really sprawls out wide so I looked down the tree and out the limbs.
A nice big limb grows right over the street with a smaller one growing over it.
A perfect chance to go out on a limb.
I climbed down, worked my way around to the side of the trunk I needed and then walked up and out the branch. An old vine was quite in the way and I had to be careful not to step on it because it could crumble right under me and make me slip. I got out decently far and took and few more pictures.
With such a big tree it’s disappointing to not be able to get to the top after two tries. So onceI did my neat rolling dismount to the ground I crossed back over the street pumped and wanting to climb more.
I spotted a straight, skinny, little tree with a good amount of branches. I thought I’d see how fast I could climb it. I ran right up and pulled and stepped my way up to the very top in a minute or two. Lots of rush hour cars were passing by. I wondered if any of them were watching me. Then I heard a cop siren. I saw it race down the park road and pull over a minivan. I was out in the open and felt I had to get down. I raced down the tree faster than I came up. It was really fun and exhilarating. It made up for the tree before. Maybe this time I won’t be improving as much and will therefor want to climb new trees as well.
1-9-09: The first paragraph of this entry is just funny. My boss at the time had a habit of giving strange jobs to the first person he sees after thinking of the task. It was always a good idea to be hidden. Then the changing in the bathroom. I guess I should explain that a lot of people use the restroom to change. So I wasn’t surprised there were a couple guys in there. But their conversation about a renewed interest in the bar scene due to divorce was funny and pathetic.
I should also add the info that on the first climb of the tree I went to the larger and tried running up the trunk almost 20 times, exhausting myself before I gave up and found another tree. That is why on this second try, I ran up once and quit.
And lastly, I didn’t think I would get in trouble with the cop, but it was fun to act like I would to make me climb fast. I seem to love thinking I might get chased. It fuels a lot of my parkour training.
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Last Saturday I got up and the family had no intention of changing the eat, nap, eat, sleep routine. Getting a little tired of this lazy attitude I called up my friend, Cassandra, to see if I could drive over for a visit. She lives somewhere between Akron and Cleveland and would be about a 2 hour drive. She happily approved and gave me directions. I arrived around 3pm and after catching up she suggested we go to this new park she recently found while Ani, her 1-year-old daughter, and Jason, her husband, took a nap.
The weather in her neck of the woods was colder and more snow covered than my grandma’s. If I had known I wouldn’t have worn my sneakers which get wet easily and have smooth soles. But happily my feet didn’t get wet and the smooth soles made it possible for me to slide down hills on just my feet. Anyway, we walked slowly down the trail in and out of wooded areas. The sun was getting very low and I figured I should pick and tree and try and catch the sunset. Bythis point, however, we were down in the shadows of a small valley.
I picked a beech tree by a creek
and knew just by looking that I had no chance to see the sunset no matter how high I climbed.
I got to it as Cassandra watched
and walked around checking things out.
The climb was a good mix of challenging moves.
I did not get to the top
but I got pretty high and had a great view.
Though I could not see the sun, I could see the last light rays hitting the tops of trees higher up on the hills.
Down below the snow was a cool blue in the shadows and the ice of the creek and puddles a dark, smokey, grey.
A father and son with two dogs walked by twice over the nearby bridge.
Both times they went by I went unnoticed. It wasn’t until they stopped to talk to Cassandra that the son noticed me for the first time.
He told his dad and he assumed I was Cassandra’s son. I guess some people automatically assume that a person in a tree is a kid. I wasn’t that far from them so I was surprised of his mistake. I took a few more shots then decided to slide my way down the tree back to the snow.
The rest of the visit with Cassandra, Jason, and Ani was very nice. It was great to see them again, and another good break from the family hibernation.