DAY 323
02.21.08
TREE 156
I froze my ass off at work today. Just standing there waiting for my co-workers to cut brush for me to carry to the chipper. But on my 10am break the news said an ice storm was on its way and Jefferson County Schools were already letting out. Since my boss was on the job we asked and he decided it would be a half day. We finished up and headed back to the shop… along with the rest of the city it seemed. Traffic was pretty awful and the ice/snow mix was already starting to fall. Back at the shop I did what little I had to do than got ready to leave. I realized that with this storm there was a possibility that today was my last day. But that really changed nothing. I clocked out and left.
Back at the house the ice continued to fall. Before I did anything I got ready to climb and decided to pick a tree close by and relatively easy. The pine in my next door neighbor’s yard that I climbed on Thanksgiving was a perfect fit.
Luckily the precipitation lightened to almost non-existent while I climbed. But enough had fallen to leave a thin layer of ice on the tops of the branches. I began to move up the evenly spaced limbs and was extremely careful around the power line.
It comes within 6-9 inches from the trunk of this pine and right in the path of my climb.
The wire doesn’t look like it’s covered with a protective sheath and I can tell it is more than a phone or cable line. I carefully moved to the other side of the tree and continued upward. The climb got trickier as I went up because the limbs were smaller, less frequent and had more ice. My hands were beginning to ache and my feet slipped a little. But I made it to my ribbon and tore it off.
Unlike my first climb just after Thanksgiving dinner, I had more light to take pictures so they weren’t as blurry.
I put my camera back in my pocket and headed back down. The ice actually helped by preventing my feet from getting stuck on the limbs. And I almost forgot about the power line but remembered just in time. I made it to the ground and went right inside.
3-5-09: Ice Storm 2008 was a joke compared to Ice Storm 2009. I also have some habit of climbing trees next to power lines when there is ice on the branches. Like most thrill seekers, I have to try harder and harder to make it more challenging and interesting. The defying of death is all part of the thrill.
—
That Thursday I discussed in the last entry, February 19th 2009, I took the train back from New Haven to NYC in the evening and met up with Ben who had just come for the week from California, AC who took the bus up from DC, and Garret who lives in NY on the upper east side. There Ben and I made plans to meet the next day for museums and tree climbing.
So the next day, Friday February 20th 2009, I got ready and took the subway up to Garret’s where Ben was staying. We got brunch at a diner down the street then headed to Central Park. When we got there we saw the Metropolitan Museum of Art and decided to go in. We looked at a bunch of art, a lot of which I have seen before, but one good new show by a current artist. Raqib Shaw does these amazingly intricate, colorful, and violent drawing/paintings on paper. I recommend it if you are in NY otherwise check out the work here.
Then we went into the park. Really we just cut through the park to get to the red line to go up to the north tip of Manhattan to the Cloisters. The Cloisters is a rebuilt castle for the purposes of housing religious art and is connected to the Metropolitan. As we walked form the subway station into Fort Tryon Park and through the paths to the Cloisters I picked out my tree but thought I’d wait till we had looked at the museum.
Now I am not a fan of religious art, but there were interesting rugs with unicorns on them. I’m not sure what the religious significance of the unicorn is, but they looked like they were being hunted and not revered. Mostly it was just a good time to spend with Ben and catch up.
After the museum we headed back to where I had picked my tree and I got to it. It was a damn cold and windy day but the sun was out. I stepped up onto a sturdy bench and reached for the first branch. From there it was an easy climb.
I didn’t get to the very top but I had a good view. I could see the Cloisters in the near distance and a heavy cluster of buildings off in the distance to the right of that.
Ben was below looking around and looking quite cold.
The bright sun reflected off the Hudson just to my left
and there was a large bridge visible to the south.
I took my pictures of what I could see
then told Ben I was heading back down to the ground. It was a quick climb and I thought I’d get Ben involved so I asked him to pose with the tree for one more picture.
Then off we went to get ready for Garret’s big dinner feast for the night. A 12 lb pork shoulder roasted for 12 hours, sea salt rolls, and two delicious salads. A bunch of old senior year roommates from Amherst were there and it was a wonderful reunion. It’s good to see friends.