DAY 307
02.05.08
TREE 136
SUPER DUPER TSUNAMI TUESDAY! And Mardi Gras! After a wet and dirty day of work I headed downtown to UofL. I’ve been meaning to climb this tree for a little while and the last time I tried there was no parking so I moved on to a different tree. Well, today when I got to 3rd Street there was a spot and it had 1 hour and 6 minutes remaining on the meter. Sweet!
I walked over to the quad where my tree is located close to the Brandeis Law Building.
Many students and other such people were walking around campus and many cars were going around the circle picking people up and dropping them off. There was just too much commotion and too many eyes for me to feel comfortable about climbing. So I found a bench and waited.
I drummed on my knees and watched people. Then I decided to go getmy hoodie from my truck. Upon my return I still thought the quad too busy so I returned to the bench. Things started to die down. I thought, wait till 6pm to climb. I had till 6:24 for my meter and I thought it might help my stealth if the sun went down a little further. 6 came and I gave another good look around. Finally the smokers had left the front of the building, the woman waiting for her ride was picked up, and the cars had stopped their steady flow.
I walked to the tree and noticed a few young students studying at a building nearby.
Just by the look of them I figured they wouldn’t care. So I pulled myself into the branches and quickly climbed toward the orange ribbon waiting atop one of the main leader branches. I stopped every few limbs to look around me for curious or disapproving eyes.
So far so good, I thought. I planned excuses as I usually do. I think my biggest problem is that I am not a UofL student nor have I any affiliation to it. I thought about saying I was getting down that ribbon for them. Like a favor. Not so good. Shortly I was at the top.
I grabbed the ribbon and took pictures.
I didn’t spend too much time, I just covered the basics: the view in the round,
up,
down,
and I was done. I paused only shortly feeling more comfortable but still a little weary of trouble. I climbed down as quick as I went up, jumped gently to the grass, and walked to my truck. I finally climbed that tree at UofL. I am tired of feeling uncomfortable climbing trees.
After that I was off to pick up some beer for Super Tuesday Results Party at Drew’s. Of course the results weren’t complete by the time I left at 10:30pm but a severe storm was coming. The night at 12:45am my dad got me up to go to the basement. Nothing happened. I was just tired.
2-6-09: February is the new extreme storm month. Well, late January, February, and early March. Last year we had severe thunderstorms, ice, a large snowfall. Now this year we had the major ice storm, extreme low temperatures, and it’s just been wacky. I am now in Boston, Mass for a month long vacation. I was checking the weather before I left and it was actually warmer here than it was in Louisville. When my college friend, Stefan, came to pick me up at the airport last night he warned me that it was the coldest it’s been this winter. HA! And I thought New Englanders were tough and used to it. Take pride my fellow Louisvillians… we lived the cold and loved it, right?
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Speaking of which, I got up Wednesday morning of this week with a need for underwear. I drove over to the Westport Road Target then made my way over to Seneca Park to look for a tree. I thought I had combed over this park for climbable trees pretty thoroughly. Especially around the pedestrian track. But there it was, a nice, tall cedar or cypress.
(I am getting confused about these two because it doesn’t seem like a cedar exactly but my book says cypresses grow in the water, clarification anyone?) (Could be something else entirely I suppose.) I parked off the main road
and walked to the trunk.
It was extremely cold but the wind was low and the sun was very bright. I liked that no one was really around in the park. There was one tree crew having lunch in their trucks way down the road but I figured I was out of their sight. When I looked closely at the trunk I realized why I had never noticed this tree before. There were no substantial limbs for 12 to 15 feet with an un-shimmiable trunk. I was have seen it in the past and immediately counted it out as an option. Well, not then. I was going to figure it out. There were three tiny limbs growing off the trunk.
Two looked particularly small and weak but I knew one would hold me fine. I knew as long as I could distribute my weight between my holds on the small limbs they would probably hold. I leapt for the first strong limb and steadied my body on the trunk with my heels. I reached for the first weak limb with my right hand and it bent but did not break. I inched my legs up and squeezed for the next and reach to the third limb. Again, it held and I got my left foot on the stronger of the small limbs. From there I could reach the first large branch and once I pulled myself up it was an easy (but cold) climb to the top.
The ice seemed to really have frazzled the bark of this tree making it look hairy and wild. Luckily that is all it did because all the limbs of this tree seemed to be intact and healthy. I pulled my camera out and took pictures of the white, salty world below.
Being the neighborhood that it is, the houses below didn’t look so small from my high vantage point.
But the snow was bright
and I got another interesting shot of the Seneca tennis courts.
It felt really good to finally have reached the top of a tree. Lately it’s been a few limbs here, a branch there, and with all the ice I was done. I think I have finally gotten to the point in this project where I really desire the top of every tree.
Just getting in the first branches is not nearly as satisfying. Even if there is an inch of ice covering everything I take no consolation in the challenge of the lower limbs. I want the top!
My hands ached and my shooting was done. I hurridly climbed back down the hairy branches, carefully slinked through the tiny limbs of the trunk, and dropped to the snow. It was a good climb and I was glad I had not only climbed to the top, but I climbed in the morning.