DAY 102

DAY 102
07.15.07
TREE 13

Finding the little trio of small, young trees was at first difficult with no orange marker to aide in my search. I had to go on memory alone. But this landscape by the edge of the Mount St. Francis lake has changed so much since April. I trudged through the thorny undergrowth and recognized the spot. To prepare myself for the climb so as not to repeat my slide and loss of skin I planned to climb quicker. However, my sandals are not as gripping as my shoes and once I started to climb and look for decent foot holds (which there were none) my feet kept slipping. My arms started to get tired. Luckily my hands have built up helpful calluses and become stronger. But after one big foot slip I started to slide. Not learning from my last experience I gripped hard to stop my slide. Only this time, instead of losing skin, I actually stopped. I regrouped, repositioned, and continued upward. I went higher than the first time. I actually reached the first limb, rested and continued higher to the next limb. And then up again. The small trunk forked and I was about to pull myself up into the fork when the tree began to tilt. As the tree slowly was bending I quickly rotated halfway around the tree and it swayed back. Feeling as if I got any higher it may sway beyond a distance that I could sway it back. If that happened would it gently lower me to the ground and snap back or would it break and I fall? I wasn’t about to find out. I enjoyed my view, rested my arms, swayed a little, safely, and then shimmied down like a rope letting my arms and gravity do the work. I am so glad I got up higher, and also that I didn’t lose skin or fall to my death.

7-15-08:  I have since answered that question of what would happen if a small tree goes beyond the point that I could bend it back upright.  So far, it just gently brings me to the ground making for a fun and exciting ride.  I imagine it isn’t too good for the trees because they often never return to their full upright positions.  Maybe over time they heal and straighten.  I should go back to those trees I have done that too and see if they look okay.  I’ll see what I can report soon.

As an apprentice member of Zephyr Gallery I get to participate in a few committees.  One is the Corporate Installation Committee that takes a truck load of artwork to a commercial business and helps pick where things should go and then hang them.  I did that yesterday at The Mercantile, an upscale condominium complex in downtown Louisville.  The first floor has one of the sweetest common spaces with a fire place, huge pool table, a couple of nice flat screen plasma tv’s, and plenty of chairs and couches to relax in.  And everything is designed to well. 

So it was pretty cool to work in there.  Plus, on a hot day, it was well air conditioned.  I did that for about 4 or so hours and then went back to my apartment and took a little nap. 

Then I awoke, had some dinner and read till the sun was getting low on the horizon.  I was waiting for a good evening time to bike west on the River Walk Trail back to this abandoned industrial building I had spotted a few days earlier.  There are some sycamores right off the trail that I thought I could get some good pictures of the building from.  So I took a leisurely ride to the spot,locked up my bike on the fence and picked my tree.  I bought some new shorts Sunday which I wore yesterday, and with keys, my big phone, and my camera all jammed in the pockets it made it difficult to move my legs.  My first attempt at running up the trunk to grab the lowest limb failed miserably and it wouldn’t have been a challenge with bigger shorts.  I had to adjust my strategy and just stood underneath the limb and jumped for it, skipping the trunk run part.  I pulled myself in and then began my climb up this pretty small sycamore.  I probably got about 35-40 feet high when I was at the top, and then I took some pictures, moving the branches that were in my way to get good views of my surroundings.

Those two people walking on the trail in the picture eventually walked right by me as I was climbing down.  They gave me some really strange looks, even slowed down and just stared at me a while, but never said a thing.  People usually say something of they see me.  Maybe they didn’t know what to say. 

Then, I unlocked my bike and before I rode back home, remembered to take a picture: