DAY 141

DAY 141
08.23.07
TREE 58

When I looked in my journal to see which tree I was to recimb today and saw that it was the one at Ballard High School I knew I had some planning to do. For one, last time Julio came out to join me and ended up boosting me into the tree. He’s back in law school in Atlanta now so I knew I had to find someone else. So I called Drew just to see if he was planning on going to his parents place. Luckily he was planning on it and he agreed to meet me at Ballard to help me out. The second problem was that school is now in session so I had to schedule the climb after school hours so as not to get arrested for being creepy. Either way, when we showed up around 7 pm the place was packed with cars for a field hockey game, girls soccer practice, and a boys soccer game. Luckily no one cared that we were hanging out by this tree. But I wanted to get up and in quickly to avoid notice anyway. So Drew locked his fingers together and I placed my foot on them and up I went. He inched me higher till I could reach the small first branch. Once I had a good hold it was a quick ascent to the top. There were plenty of strong branches, and for such a hot day, I didn’t get too sweaty climbing because it wasn’t too difficult. At the top I got my ribbon then snapped some shots. I went down a few feet to another branch then back up a little higher to take some shots in the opposite direction. As I started to climb down I tried to be as fluid with my movements and slink down through the branches. Still thinking about that idea of style and my individual and identifiable climbing technique. Again, it’s silly ’cause who would I be compared to? Slow children?

8-23-08:  Where’s Drewdo?  Can you spot Drew in the pictures above?  He is in three of them.  See if you can find all of them and you’ll get a surprise!  (A surprise date with Drew!)

And can anyone say girl’s field hockey rules?  Cause I can’t. My brother and I were discussing the sticks they use the other day.  They make them so short that all the players have to bend way over and looks so uncomfortable and bad for the back.  Why don’t they just make them longer?  The only nice thing I can say about field hockey is that it tended to pool a large amount of the attractive girls at school in one area… with skirts.  For a public school it was closest thing to a catholic school uniform.  Not that that means anything, right?

What I’d really like to see is a picture of Drew next to a tree wearing a Ballard High School girls field hockey uniform.  I know!  Control yourself, it is a hot image. 

Enough silliness, lets get to tree climbing here.  Last night I worked the opening at Zephyr Gallery from 4:30-6:30pm.  I recommend you go check out Deborah Thomas and Mitch Eckert’s work out.  They will be up for the September First Friday Trolley Hop.  Then my parents showed up and we went to eat at teh Mayan Cafe.  I recommend the seafood bisque and the pork… mmmmm.  I am not quite sure why I am telling you all this, it is in no way relevant to my climb.  But, I will continue.  After my parents left I got my cellophane, scissors, and packing tape crammed into my backpack and I hopped on my bike to head over to Drew’s.  (Man, he comes up a lot in this entry!)  On the way I stopped at this little white church on the corner of Barret Ave. and Broadway.  The tree wasn’t big by any means but it looked like an interesting climb with some good power lines running through the branches.  I always like a dangerous challenge.

I scrambled up the trunk into the limbs and worked my way up and out towards the view to downtown.  I passed the two levels of power lines with no problems.  I wasn’t even close.

If you look close you can see both levels of power lines.  It is really nice to see trees not completely cut and scooped out to go around the power lines.  They just look so strange, like big leafy C’s.  If you thin the tree properly you can have the lines run right through without trouble.  I learned that working for the tree service. 

Anyway, the sunset over downtown turned out to be quite spectacular. 

I took a bunch of pictures similar to this one.  I’ll post a few.


It was just such easy shooting.  Besides that it was hard to get them completely crisp and clear since it was getting dark.  Then I eventually turned around and took pictures of other surrounding things.





Then, as I was beginning to be done up in the top of the tree I heard a man yelling while he walked down the road.  He sounded crazy and disturbed and was repeating “HEY, HO!” over and over in a very loud and gruff voice.  I waited till he passed to come down.  I probably would have nothing to worry about but I can never predict how people in there right minds will react to me, let alone crazy people.  I came down through the limbs quickly ready to get to Drew’s to get myself wrapped in cellophane and packing tape.  Surprisingly the climb really got me hot and sweaty but I guess the weather has been warming up and turning a little more humid. 

The wrapping went well, I think it wore out Drew more than it did me, because soon after we finished, he collapsed on his bed and failed to respond to everything MaryLiz and I said to him.  I hope you’ve recovered today, ol’ buddy.