DAY 351 – Daily Climb

DAY 351
03.20.08
TREE 183

It is the first day of spring, finally. The sun was out and it was really nice. Norman was nice enough to give me two tickets to see a play at Actors Theatre tonight. He couldn’t go because of his class, so I invited Charlotte to go with me. We didn’t have to be there till 7:15 but we planned to eat before hand so I left home with plenty of time to climb a tree.

When I got to Herr Lane the schools were letting out. I decided to drive to Charlotte’s and see if she wanted to join me. She did and we walked over behind Wilder Elementary and cut up the side walk to the school. When we got to the cross walk there was an older woman wearing an orange vest and carrying a stop sign.

She asked if we were going to cross and we said yes and thank her. She replied that she was so happy to see smiling faces. Those kids who just got out of school must be stupid or something, because I know when I was that age and school let out I was a happy boy. Especially when the sun was shining.

Anyway, we crossed and walked over to Julio’s mom’s house.

There were no cars parked at the house but I decided I would knock on the door anyway just to let them know that I was going to climb their tree. No one was there so I just walked over to the tree, grabbed the first little branch off the trunk and pulled myself up. Charlotte stood on thedrive way and watched.

I worked my way up the limbs noticing that new twigs had grown and were starting to form buds on the ends.

I got to my pink ribbon and put my fist up in the air to show Charlotte my success.

She responded with much congratulations. Then I took my camera out to take pictures.

I wasn’t very high and therefore couldn’t see too far.

But I shot what I could and also a few of Charlotte watching from below.

Then, not wanting to keep her too long, I checked really quick for a possible higher climb, didn’t see anything and decided to climb down. I made sure my camera was in my pocket deep so it wouldn’t fall out like it did last time.

I was down quick completing another successful reclimb. We walked back to her house and later had a really nice night with good food and an amazing play called the break/s.

3-25-09: I just got off the phone with Charlotte. Posting all these entries with her in them made me want to see how she’s doing. She lives in Lexington now and is sorely missed. Having a good friend along for a tree climb is always a good thing. Especially one like Charlotte who had so much free time and is very easy to get along with.

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March 20th 2009. I biked over to Tim and Natalie’s in the morning to pick up a CD of the images from the night before. While there we made plans to meet up later to go for a bike ride. Tim came home from work in the afternoon and eventually I got the call to meet at the entrance to the Beargrass Creek Trail. I biked over decked out in my bike gear ready for the first good ride of the season. Tim and Nat showed up and we went over to Cherokee and then to Seneca. The hills were killing me after a long season of short rides. We took a break on the edge of the Seneca walking loop. Natalie asked if I had climbed a tree yet and I told her I hadn’t and was hoping to climb at some point during our ride. Well, this was a good spot and a good time so I checked out the hackberry tree that we were right next to. It actually looked great. Natalie asked if I wanted her to take pictures of my climb and I was more than happy to give her my camera. When I got to climbing, I knew I was going to have to shimmy. I wasn’t happy about that since I was wearing shorts and I knew the rough bark of the tree was going to scrape me. The first scrapes of warm weather tree climbing are the worst. I managed to avoid all but a few minor scrapes and reach a branch. I climbed up from there as Tim and Natalie watched from below.

As I worked and solved the puzzle of the climb Natalie captured a good face I often make when I am putting for some serious focus and effort.

I followed the limbs up to a high point and thought, well, what do I do know? Without my camera I looked around a few seconds and figured I was just ready to climb down. I went back down reversing my steps and figured out a way down the trunk without getting anymore scrapes.

When I looked at all the pictures Natalie took of my climb I thought they might make an interesting animation. So here it is, my first GIF:

Thanks again to Tim and Natalie for the good ride. It felt great to get out.

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