November 2nd 2009 – This is the week I got really busy with the show and just stopped writing much of anything in my entries. One below just says "Walden." So the words in italics I just added from memory to expand on the entry and give you a better idea of what happened. Not many pictures either.
I also reached Day 900 in this week which was a pretty big milestone. I did some figuring and I will hit Day 1000 on December 29th of this year. Should be a pretty big day. Some days I feel the number is significant and others I feel it is meaningless. As far as this project goes, in terms of an ending, I see none in sight. It might as well be Day 2000, 10,000, whatever, I just want to keep climbing trees.
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DAY 895 09.15.09 – I was getting crazy anxious about all that I had to do. I was trying to prepare for my talk on Thursday at the Speed and my body was revolting. I had to get away from the computer screen. So I went for a walk. But with all the shit on my plate I couldn’t make it a walk for walk’s sake. I grabbed two Kroger bags and my camera and headed out in the general direction of the lower Brownsboro Kroger. I made my way over off Payne Street to the road that cuts over to Frankfort Ave. over the railroad tracks. As I approached the 90 degree turn in the road I spotted a tree top that towered over the others.
I was drawn in and cut into the undergrowth and found the base. It didn’t have any limbs I could reach so I started up a small and decaying tree growing a few feet away. I transferred from there to a trunk squeeze on my desired tree. Then I shimmied up to the nearby branch. From there I had to transfer over to a Hackberry tree that was leaning near and crisscrossing this tree. Up and back into the tall tree to a place where there were finally enough branches to get to the top. And the top was awesome. There was one joint where five branches grew out and made a seat like a hand. I sat comfortable and got out my camera and shot images of my view out to the large, scary power station structures
and down to the nearby railroad.
When I was done I sat for a while with a smile on my face and found myself loving this tree. It struck me as so profound that I have found an activity I do everyday and it never ceases to get old. The walk and the climb completely worked. I felt better. I climbed back down, walked to Kroger and got some food for the week. Things checked off the list and my anxiety subdued, good decision.
DAY 896 09.16.09 – I went to Lookingglass Alice at Actors Theatre at 7:30 with Drew. It was an awesome production with only 5 actors doing incredible stunts while acting and making us laugh. Very entertaining. Afterward we went home and I immediately left the house to climb. I went over to Payne and took the left to Pope. I wanted to climb this Sweetgum tree that is next to another Sweetgum I had climbed a few months back. But there were no reachable branches and the trunk was too big to shimmy. I could have climbed onto the roof of the nearby building and connected to a branch. But I didn’t feel like risking it. So I just walked over to the other Sweetgum and jumped in. I felt pretty fluid climbing up and found a nice seat at the top. I didn’t have my camera so I just sat and chewed on leaf stems for their sweetness. I picked a couple seed pods and threw them through the leaves. Then I climbed down and walked home.
DAY 897 09.17.09 – After Social, tree off side street.
This was the night of my talk at the Speed Museum. It went great. I was pretty nervous, but once I got up there was fine. I went over on my 10 minutes but the 200+ crowd seemed to enjoy the talk. I got them to laugh and gasp. Afterward was a small reception then my parents offered to take me and my two photographers, Natalie and Drew to dinner at Social. Drew had another engagement and didn’t come but Natalie did. The food was excellent. After everyone left I went down Shelby I believe and climbed a small Pear tree.
DAY 898 09.18.09 – Walden
I went to Walden School to drop of the show postcards that had been delivered the day before to Sharon Weis, the other Zephyr member I am showing with. She is the art teacher there and had just gotten of work. On my way out I climbed a Maple that I had climbed last year. At the top I saw the first sign of fall and changing leaves. Beautiful day.
DAY 899 09.19.09 – Waterfront Sycamore with Jerbear
Parkour, Waterfront Park by Tumbleweed. Jeremy started climbing a Sycamore I had climbed before. He looked afraid to go higher on the smaller limbs so I climbed up to show him how to tuck his feet in close to the trunk to keep from breaking the branches. Then I broke a branch. Brilliant.
DAY 900 09.20.09 – Wet tree in Hays Kennedy in thunderstormy night.
Day 900!!! I was stoked! It was storming really bad, lightning, torrential pouring. I could barely see to drive. When I went up the soaked tree and kept going to the top death was fresh on my mind. But I just kept thinking, "well, I hit 900 days, it’d be a good time to go I guess." Rachel had called me earlier so I called her back at the top of the tree and told her the situation. Which was a mistake and I just made her worry. But I felt great. Once off the phone I just stood in the tree and looked out over the dark wet fields of Hays Kennedy Park and felt happy. It was beautiful. I climbed down no problem and made sure to call Rachel back and let her know I didn’t die.
DAY 901 09.21.09 – Fence to tree to tree off Adams.
