DAY 345
03.14.08
TREE 178
It’s Friday and the Downtown galleries planned a re-do Gallery Hop since last week was snowed out. Well, a few did and Will’s mom’s studio was one of them. He was planning on hanging out there then wanted to go get pizza so I said I’d join him. We hung out for a little while, talked to Joyce and some other folks then I said I needed to climb and asked Will if he wanted to join me. He agreed and we got in my truck and drove a few blocks down and over to Butchertown. The first time I climbed this tree I got accused of spying on a company that makes chili for local restaurants. So this time I was hoping there wouldn’t be anyone around this time of night. I was wrong. A few cars were parked in front and the lights were on. We casually walked over to the tree but saw someone in the window. I hid behind the tree but Will didn’t. I asked if they saw us and Will said, "yeah, he’s looking at us." Crap! I walked back towards the truck not willing to push my luck.
We got in the truck and I checked my tree schedule. The next one is off Eastern Parkway by UofL.
I asked Will if he was still down for the ride and he was. We drove over and then parked on a side road by the the interstate and walked over to the tree. I was giving him a lot of questions about his new love interest and it was a good talk.
Being night time there were few cars and I felt unhindered by any of my usual paranoia.
Plus with Will there he could warn or distract. I started to climb up which went a little slow. There were a lot of dead branches I had to avoid. I got up to the top to my ribbon and believe I went one little branch higher than last time.
It felt great.
My head was above the highest tip ofthe branch I was on. The lights of the University and city shined brightly
causing the sky to glow.
I took lots of pictures
as Will practiced his martial arts by beating on the tree. The street light below was right in the branches of my tree
and made for some good pictures.
Then I apprehensively grabbed my ribbon.
Bird shit had landed on part of it, but really not too much. Then I climbed down breaking many of those dead limbs as I went.
We walked back to the truck and then to Spinelli’s for pizza. It was a nice night with a friend and a good climb.
3-25-09: Ugh! Behind again and with only ten days left in the year-long blog. I am going to do my best to catch up in the next few days to have me last week up to date. Wish me luck.
I think my only complaint about the entry above is that one, I didn’t have a good picture of Will fighting the tree, and two, you can’t see the bird shit in the ribbon.
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All the way back to March 14th 2009. I went to Vernon Lanes in evening to meet up with some friends to see The Fervor and the Winterpills. I first went to the lanes having never been there before and asked where the live music was. I was directed back outside to the back of the building and to an unmarked basement door. No one was around and it seemed strange. But when I opened the door there were tons of people, a stage, lights, a bar. It’s a pretty cool spot. Except the returnshoots are in the ceiling and the balls kept rolling by making a ruckus and distracting the musicians. The Fervor was great, as always, and the Winterpills were alright. I think the married couple singers were in a fight. There was a lot of tension on stage.
Anyway, before the Winterpills went on I slipped out to climb a tree. I walked down Story towards the Boys & Girls Club and looked in their field for a tree.
Nothing was calling me so I continued to walk back towards Washington and Adams. There is a white house that is a law office. I had climbed a magnolia tree there months ago. There is also this massive hackberry on the property that looks so enticing but just doesn’t have any low branches.
But I had never approached the tree from the back of the house.
There it was, hidden from me all along, my way in. The trunk had a huge gaping hole with an offshoot limb and some roots embedded inside.
I got very excited and jumped right into the tree’s wound. The inside tree fibers were soft and decomposing as the roots worked their way into the tree. I used that little offshoot limb as a foot hold then reached for a substantial branch. I struggled and inched up till I had a hold and then pulled myself up. I did it! I got in the tree. From there the climb was fun and awesome.
I maneuvered and shimmied up the rough-barked branches until I was high up in the skinny limbs.
I didn’t get to the very top but I was still plenty high.
This tree had a few broken and hanging limbs. One in particular was dangling straight down from the broken spot and still had leaves on the ends from last fall. I took pictures of my view and stood to enjoy my accomplishment.
I was going to miss the beginning of the Winterpills since I was taking so long but I didn’t care. This tree was beautiful. I decided to start climbing down and transferred down to another limb I had not taken to climb up. I took a couple more shots of that hanging limbs close up
and of the trunk of the tree.
Then I slid and shimmied down to just above the large hole.
I was a little nervous about reaching back down to the offshoot limb without falling. But I just went slow and did exactly what I had done before in reverse and I made it fine. I was dirty and happy. I dropped to the ground and happily walked back to Vernon Lanes with a long desired obstacle overcome.