DAY 343
03.12.08
TREE 175
My friend Drew called me up today to offer me a job. Not a job with regular hours but a job as salesman. Basically, I would try to drum up some business for his web design company, Jet A Studios. He called again a little later to invite me for dinner and to discuss the position in more detail.
I left the house with the sun beginning to lower towards the horizon.
I went down I-71 to the rest stop on the southbound side.
When I got out of my truck and walked to the line of trees where I needed to climb I had a sudden shock. One tree had a major section split off and was on the ground.
Was it my tree!? I wondered. No. Mine was just to the left and fine. I walked to the trunk and looked up at the branches. All too high to reach which I knew from memory. A limb which is not the lowest on the trunk grows out and bends way down to make a nice long, steep climb. I looked towards the building and lot for people. One woman was cleaning her windows and a man paced frantically by an outside bench. A worker was collecting trash. I waited till the two men were inside and the woman had her back turned then up I went, dangling from underneath this branch as I crawled up. Once I got to the trunk and to my feet I peered around the side to see of anyone had spotted me. So far so good. I began to work my way up slowly, checking often for people. My biggest concern was the worker who was back collecting trash. He was very slow and going to the many cans along the parking lot.
In his lackadaisical performance his eyes often wondered around the premises. I had to watch him closely and freeze, hiding myself in the tree when I thought he might be looking my way. I didn’t have to, I suppose, but I kind of enjoyed the role as the sneak. I played up the importance of my mission as a matter of life or death and getting spotted would be the worst-case scenario. I had to succeed!
When the worker had his head in the cans I moved quickly and quietly, staring him down through the branches. Once I was out from the protection of the trunk I took on the assumption that if I’m still, they won’t see me.
So with no sudden moves, I crept up towards my ribbon.
When I finally reached it I took out my camera and took pictures.
Then I reached up, pulled down the ribbon and felt a sense of accomplishment.
After retrieving the ribbon and taking pictures it was like I was home free. I could be spotted and told to get down, but I would have already achieved my objective. All I’d have to do is apologize and get the hell out of there. But since I hadn’t been spotted yet, I kept an eye out and moved in stealth as I climbed down.
On the last limb I peeked around the trunk once more to make sure I was clear to drop. No one was looking so I hung from the branch, looked down to the soft mulch 12 to 15 feet below me and let go. I fell like a rock, hit me feet and fell back on my ass. I jumped up and looked fast for anyone who may have seen my embarrassing stumble. No… good. I walked back to my truck and the worker collecting the trash was not 10 feet from me. He said nothing and I just got in my truck and drove away. Mission Accomplished!
3-18-09: It’s a good thing I sneaked around on that climb because that same worker later kicked me off a tree. Bastard. You’ll be reading the story about it soon.
Also, never really became a salesman for Drew. I’m not too outgoing. Figured I’d probably be an awful salesman. I appreciated the offer though.
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Thursday, March 12th 2009. Natalie had a CD of the pictures from Monday night ready for me to pick up so I biked down to Haldeman off Frankfort Avenue. I chatted with them a while then went to Shiraz for lunch. On my way back I pulled off to park in between Frankfort and Brownsboro Road. It has a playground and some basketball courts.
I have climbed here before a few times. I can see my mom’s H&R Block office from the park.
As I walked my bike slowly on the path I looked at the trees. There was so much damage. At first I tried to find trees that looked unaffected and could be good climbs. But what I was drawn to was this fallen hackberry.
There were a few trees that I could have climbed but I knew they would have been easy, routine, boring, and I found myself next to the hackberry. The trunk had ripped and fallen half way up leaving tan shards pointing in all directions. It looked menacing and dangerous and I knew this was my tree.
I leaned my bike up against the trunk and thought about shimmying up the trunk to the few remaining limbs. Then I decided against it. The damaged spot looked bad but secure.
I was pretty sure that if I climbed up the top of the tree that was leaning on the ground, I would be fine. It was going to be a climb in reverse, from the top to the bottom. I walked around to the tip of the limbs and stepped into a few.
I started to crawl up. It was pretty quick to the top and I stopped just before the rip, took out my camera and took a few shots.
Then I carefully climbed over the pointy splinters and stood upon a sturdy branch.
There I took many more pictures of the tree and surrounding view.
I took a few with the splinters in the foreground.
One house nearby looked incredibly creepy.
It was a cloudy day and it fit the mood of the climb.
A kid was in the distance playing basketball by himself and he would stop every once in a while to watch me. When I was done and ready to climb down, I lowered myself to hugging the trunk and slid down to my bike and the ground. I felt very satisfied to have climbed this dangerous, damaged tree and I was happy I didn’t get hurt. But like Tracy said, the tree called me to it, and I knew it would protect me.
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