DAY 306
02.04.08
TREE 131
Last night after the game Norman invited me to stay the night at the boat house.
I thought it would be perfect because I had one more tree from October to climb and it was from my going away party that was held at his parents’ place.
It is a poplar next to the lake by the playground.
I slept well in the daybed and awoke once to rain. I got up to pee and decided to go out on the balcony. The air was cold and misty and a light fog hovered over the lake. I remember thinking how lucky I was to be here at his time to see it. When I woke up in the morning Norman was already gone. I threw my clothes on and headed out the door to walk to Norman’s house to get my camera. On my way I ran into Mary, Norman’s mom, Silas and Marietta, Norm’s nephew and niece. Silas showed me how he could swing on the rope and bounce on the pogo swing. Then I trudged through the fresh mud to Norm’s. He was working on his rocket stove again and we made plans to go out to breakfast after I climbed. I walked back over the trail and Mary, Silas, and Marietta had gone inside. I was able to concentrate on my climb in solitude. Which is good because I was pretty sure it was going to be slippery and tough.
I touched the trunk and it was very damp. The tree had a slight lean so one side was slightly less damp then the rest. I chose that side to face. Then I jumped and wrapped my legs around the trunk and squeezed. I reached around with my arms and hugged the tree while pulling up. I readjusted my legs and repeated this till I could reach the lowest limb. It was dark, wet, and looked pretty weak. It made me a little nervous so I tried to not put all my weight on it and kept my legs squeezing on the trunk. From there I reached for the next branch and it broke right off. This seemed to be a problem because I couldn’t reach another one. But I just did what what I had done in the beginning with a little help from that first low branch. I finally got to the third limb and from that point onward the limbs became stronger and more plentiful.
I felt the dampness slowly move onto my clothes. It was cold on the inner part of my legs.
At the top
I ripped off my last white ribbon of the project.
Then I took pictures.
This tree isn’t incredibly tall and I was flanked by conifers much taller than this poplar.
The best view I had was of the gorgeous green lake with a frosted frozen center.
The rain over the night had melted the ice around the edges and softened its once hard reflective surface.
The fog I saw last night still remained but continued to lighten slowly. After putting the camera away I stared at the lake a little while longer. Then, not wanting Norm to get too hungry waiting for me, I climbed down. I had a nice slide down the bottom of the trunk. As I walked back over the path across the spillway I could see the fog roll up the embankment and down the hill. It faded to clear before reaching the bottom of the slope. I should climb more trees in the mornings.
2-5-09: It’s too bad I haven’t climbed more trees in the morning. I always love it but I am not a morning person at all. Especially when it’s cold outside. It is so hard to get out of bed. It doesn’t help that we keep the house at 54.
I could also really use some thawing weather right now. Single digits can go away now.
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Tuesday of this week, the 3rd, I made plans with Jesse Levesque to get drinks at Proof at 4pm. It was to celebrate the sale of the artwork in Dublin. She was the curator and I am so thankful to her for picking my work. I also invited Drew and Norman, and Jesse invited her sister Amanda. I drove to Drew’s office down on 10th and Main about a half hour before 4. He was swamped and couldn’t join me so I left out into the freezing ass cold day to find a tree toclimb before drinks. I had seen the extensive damage in the small park across the street from the 21C Hotel so I thought I’d check those trees out.
When I got there I could tell that none of the trees were going to provide a very high perspective or challenging climb. But it was so cold and windy that I figured I’d just get it over with. If I wait till later it will be dark and colder. I picked a tree at the far end of the park that looked as if the limbs could hold me and that shielded me from a view from Main Street.
I climbed up into the first branches and stopped there. I wasn’t even higher than I am tall.
I shot pictures as best I could with my aching hands of the broken limbs on my tree and the others in the small park.
I could see some of the flood wall and the elevated I-64 interstate beyond it.
It really didn’t provide me any better view than I could have gotten from the ground,
but as I said, I was in a tree. That’s what really matters. When I was done shooting I hopped out to the snow and snapped another shot before going into Proof to wait for Jesse in the warmth.
Norman and his new girlfriend, Tracy, showed up shortly after Jesse. It was very nice to fiinally meet her. And the afternoon celebration was great.