DAY 111

DAY 111
07.24.07
TREE 22

With a house full of very lively and friendly characters I thought I would invite them to witness today’s reclimb since it was so conveniently located right outside the side door of the house. Larry, Margie, and Beth all came outside and sat at the table to watch my climb. I had climbed this tree many times since my first climb because I installed one of my cicada bodies in it for Magic at the Mount. The body took a few tries to install and a couple trips to repair and take down. It was actually the body that was featured in the Courier Journal news paper twice. So I was up and into the first branches quick and knew exactly how to get where I was going. As I scurried up, the audience made many gasping comments. I got to my mark and then continued up. This tree was actually perfect for a higher climb. When it became difficult I started to ignore my audience to concentrate and to let myself take my time to enjoy the climb and be safe. I wasn’t going to let myself be rushed. I got up much higher. I was a few feet higher than the house but the leaves were so thick for any really good view of the surrounding grounds. I paused and took in the sights and let my viewers know I had reached my limit. Then I climbed down, moving smoothly, swinging and dropping from limb to limb. Once on the ground I sat with them and we discussed my motivations for climbing trees. Ardis had come outside with a camera and took some pictures. It was a good climb and it was nice to share it with such nice people.

This is one of Ardis’ pictures… (in order from left to right: Beth, Margie, Larry, and myself)

7-24-08:  That was a really good bunch of people in the house.  I think that might have been my favorite time.  They were incredibly nice and we spent many hours talking about all sorts of things.  I told them I have future plans of becoming a college level professor and they all are or have been one.  Beth and Margie both teach/taught writing in Indiana and Larry is a playwright and teaches at a school in Queens.  They gave me a lot to think about.  I also gave them a lot to be concerned about.  I think I scared them pretty good on my climb. 

Larry was particularly hilarious.  He walks around with a notebook and takes notes on things, people, his thoughts and experiences to help create his plays.  I found him wandering around the house and the grounds many times.  I always wondered when he actually wrote.  He had just come from some psychic/spiritual/energy workshop thing and he said he could sense things about me.  He tried a few times… he wasn’t a 100% on but he could fudge it to be close.  For example, he was trying to sense the Rachel’s name.  He asked if it started with a “P” and I said no.  When I told him it was “Rachel” he said that and “R” looks very similar to a “P” and that he knew he was on to something.  Then knowing her name he asked if there was something about her nose.  I said, at one point in her life, she had a nose ring, but does not any longer.  To that he said, “Exactly!”

Yesterday I did some deck painting in the morning then back to Louisville to clean up and do my shift at Zephyr Gallery.  The 3 1/2 hours went very uneventful with a whopping zero visitors into the gallery.  I got some good blogging done though.  Then after that I rode my bike to Cherokee Park and picked out an awesome maple tree.  It was tall and wide with tons of branches.  It wasn’t a real challenge but it was fun and offered a lot of different paths to the top.  I picked my limb and went to the top.  I looked around and saw another limb that could take me higher.  This is a picture of the limb I was on:

So I climbed down a little ways, transfered to the other limb and went to the top of it.  It was slightly higher than the other but much skinnier at the top and hard to stay still for pictures.  That is why the picture above is a tad blurry.  Here is a picture of the second and highest spot:

And looking down from the my spot:

And finally, what I could see out from my spot.  I was near Dog Hill:

When I climbed back down I got close to the bottom and saw this large branch going way out horizontally with another branch right above.  I walked on the first and held on the higher one.  Then the branch I was on crossed over to a lower one.  I made the switch and then walked back in to the trunk and down to the ground.  It was just a really fun climb.  It seemed to be the perfect tree to teach people how to climb trees.  I got so much into the idea that I killed the little poison ivy vines that were starting to grow up on the trunk.  I killed it by kicking the vines and breaking them.  Some girl sitting on a blanket near by was scowling at me because I don’t think she understood what I was doing.  She must of thought I was just being randomly violent and destructive.  Oh well.