DAY 338
03.07.08
TREE 170
It’s a strange and exciting thing to wake up and look out the window and see a snow covered landscape. Even though I had watched the local news the night before and knew it was coming, I was still surprised in my newly awakened stupor. My mind may have known it, but my body was sore from playing outside in the warm weather the day before.
I got up and got ready because I was meeting Michelle at the Mary Anderson Center at 11am. And I wanted to climb my tree before that. More snow was on its way and I don’t have anymore trees to climb in Indiana. So after packing all my shit for my over-night stay, I drove down the snowy road, took a left on 146 and pulled off into the large parking lot.
I got out and walked through the light, powdery cover and felt the new snow on my face. As I approached the tree I looked for my ribbon and saw it at the top. Oh boy! I thought. This is going to be hard on my bare hands. I haven’t figured out if I’m stubborn and stupid for always climbing without gloves, or perhaps I just like the continuity. I say I don’t trust climbing with gloves but I’ve never tried it. And when it’s windyand cold like today, I find myself putting my hands in my sleeves and climbing by hooking my arms around branches rather than gripping them. I can’t say this is very safe, but I also can’t say it hasn’t expanded my abilities either. Maybe if I had some good gloves I’d try it, but I don’t so I’ll just continue to suffer bare handed.
This tree, at least for the bottom half, is easy. A sugar maple I believe, with lots of limbs growing strong and close together. Towards the top all these strong limbs stretch out like the spikes of a porcupine, only with more little limbs branching off as well. It is at this point that the climb becomes more challenging. I have to pick a leader branch and sometimes I can use others nearby as foot holds or hand holds. But ultimately, that waiting pink ribbon had decided my path for me.
Towards the last few feet it became grab and pull, like climbing a single pole with uneven pegs coming out of the sides.
I reached my high point without too much snow to deal with. It’s just so light and blows away in the gusting wind. I ripped off the ribbon
and took pictures trying carefully not to let the snow land on the lens. It forced me to take most of my shots looking east
and down.
The falling snow made for low visibility and for a white-out landscape. A few trucks and plows were going by on 146 but really it wasn’t too busy.
I took in all I could before I felt my hands get too cold. Then I started back down.
It was an easy climb to the bottom. A truck drove by as I hit the ground. I wondered if he saw me and then, as I usually do, I wondered what he thought if he had. Then I walked back to my truck, secluded in the lot and thought, I’ve got a long trip coming up and I have to pee. So I opened my truck door and pissed in the snow. Any other day I wouldn’t have risked that, but no one was really around. I got in my truck satisfied, relieved, and ready to go.
3-17-09: Happy St. Patti’s Day! Catching up still… here we go.
Remember the big snow storm of ’08? Above was just the beginning. If you’ve been keeping up with this here blog you know that I tried gloves this winter. Once and it freakin’ sucked. It almost made me fall, just as I feared it would. It could have been the gloves, however, as they were loose. I still have yet to try tight climbing gloves. But who cares now that it’s 70 degrees outside!
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March 7th 2009 was Julio Driggs’ birthday. His girlfriend Amanda was in town and Mike and them picked me up to go to dinner at a Hibachi grill, Sapporo’s on Bardstown Road. After dinner we headed to Flannagan’s down on Baxter and parked down a side street. As we all walked to the bar I looked for a tree to climb. I spotted on in front of a school.
It wasn’t the best tree but I could tell there was an easy path to the top. My biggest concern was climbing fast and getting it over with since I hate having people wait. Not that they had to, or that they cared, but I just feel that way. It was Julio’s night, not watch-Todd-climb-again night.
So I raced up the tree to the top and took pictures in a rush.
The results are obvious that I didn’t take my time.
They all came out blurry. There were some interesting things like the window of the school with the light on.
But you can’t see inside. Even when I climbed back down and tried to take a picture of the whole tree, it came out blurry.
There is rushing, and then there is careless, frantic racing. I need to find the balance.
Besides the climb, which wasn’t even a bad one, I had a good time that night celebrating with Julio and friends. Cheers to you, J.