DAY 221
11.11.07
TREE 145
Second day of the yard sale. I woke up and Rachel had to leave to go to her new job at Yoga in the Pearl. I was really hoping she was going to be around to help. One, so it’s not so boring, and two, to help out logistically. If someone were to come to look at the drums or pool table I’d have to leave all the stuff out on the driveway unattended. Plus, how do I go to the bathroom? Well, I set it up and started to sit and wait. Then I did have to go. So I just went behind a tree by the side of the house and kept my eye on the stuff. I did his a few more times during the sale till around noon, I called it quits. Not many people were coming by and fewer were buying anything. I was tired of sitting and wasting my time, I needed to pack. But before I did that I went to the park to climb. I chose a nice triangular shaped evergreen by the soccer field.
It had a nice low limb to grab hold and climb into the tree. I can’t think of the kind of tree it is but the bark reminds me of cedar, or is it cypress?
I’m still learning these trees. Anyway, I climbed up the many strong limbs all the way to the top.
I wrapped one arm around the little, diminished trunk and held on while I took some pictures.
The leaves or needles, or whatever these are were really thick but I was up high enough to get a good break for a decent view of the park, distant neighborhood, and even more distant hills.
Today was colder than yesterday and I got chilled sitting at the yard sale all morning. It was nice to finally climb and warm up a little. I tied my ribbon then climbed down. I had work to do, things to get done, but still was incredibly overwhelmed. Rachel got back from work and she really helped me. I went through piles and she packed suitcases. It really would have been very difficult without her help. I’m glad we are able to remain friends. Especially during such a difficult task.
11-11-08: Ever since that week in Portland, selling and giving away a bunch of my stuff, it made me come to terms with my possessions. I had to force myself to erase the sentimental value I place on so much junk. All the things I have have associated memories and connections that become meaningful over time. I am a pack rat and still have so much stuff in my closet at my parents house. But I have since tried to keep what I have to a minimum and try not to get attached to material goods. I allow myself some, like my camera and my bike. Things I use everyday and if I didn’t have the particular ones I have now, I’d get new ones. It is the utility of the item that has more importance now. If I went on accumulating junk as I had been for the rest of my life, I’d have way too much stuff and never be able to move freely and it would always weigh on my mind. Less is more. It was a good lesson.
Yesterday I made myself get out and climb during the day. I have been climbing so much at night lately that I missed the peak fall colors. There are still some nice ones out there but so many trees have almost lost all their leaves already. I was a little surprised and slightly disappointed. I biked over to Cherokee Park and had a desire to revisit the three trees from DAY 75. It is the fallen tree trunk to the maple to the hackberry tree. I climbed it on June 17th of this year and I couldn’t see much because of the leaves. So now I thought I would be able to see more. What I saw was a huge pile of animal crap:
Ok, that wasn’t the only thing I saw. Once I reached the top I could see a little stretch of I-64. If you look closely at the picture below you can see a school bus.
But really, I didn’t see that much more. The leaves were very pretty, however, and I also had a better view down to the ground.
After sitting at the top of the hackberry for a while watching a few mountain bikers go by on the trail below, I decided to climb back down. I stopped once I got back into the maple tree to take a few more pictures.
This one above you can see the trunk that I used to crawl up.
That is when I saw the small maple a few feet away. It is here in the picture above in the center, the one with the leaves. Since this was an unofficial reclimb, I had the desire to climb a new tree as well. So after I climbed down the rest of the maple and scooted down the fallen trunk, I went over to the young maple and climbed up. From this tree I go some good pictures of the trees I had just climbed and other views I thought were quite beautiful.
Fall is just such a beautiful time. I took a lot of pictures yesterday. I also had that great experience of being hidden in plain sight. A handful of bikers and two runners went very nearby on the trail. None of them ever saw me. Even this group of three bikers, who were going very slow, did not see me when I was at their level when I was scooting down the fallen trunk. I was staring right at them and they were 20 feet away and they didn’t even see me. It was weird. It’s not like I was wearing camouflage or anything. I guess they were intently focused on the trail in front of them. Makes you wonder if they went biking for the exercise or to enjoy the fall colors. If it was the latter, they missed a lot.