DAY 281

DAY 281
01.10.08
TREE 120

I went to Bernheim for work today.  We got three trees down before lunch.  One I helped pull down by driving a truck in reverse with a rope tied to the truck and to the tree.  Then a few minutes after lunch started it began to rain.  There was lightning and thunder and it was really dark.  I dumped the wood chips and then we headed back to the shop.  I clocked out at 1:30 and went home.  I sat on the lazyboy in front of the TV and passed out.  When I finally awoke the severe weather … … was just ending.  There was a tornado watch all afternoon.  I struggled to shake off the grogginess of my nap.  I had plans to go eat with Michelle and I needed to climb a tree.  Once there was a break in the rain I grabbed my stuff and headed straight for Tom Sawyer Park.  But when I got there it started raining again.  Hard.  I tried waiting a little while but to no avail.  It was dark and Michelle was going to be off work soon.  I looked back in my climb journal and saw that the tree by her house was coming up for a reclimb soon.  I thought it would be perfect to climb it tonight since last time I did there were severe storms and tornado warnings as well.  So I drove to her house

and she showed up at the same time.  I told her I’d climb and be right in.  She said she didn’t want to watch.

I jumped for the first branch and got myself to my feet.  The tree was pretty wet and dirty.  The climb from there was easy and I got to my ribbon quickly. 

I looked out at the sky and it had miraculously cleared.  The moon was an amazingly thin crescent and the rest of the circle was subtly illuminated.  The stars were out and it was a nice night. 

I took some pictures

and noticed I could just see a little bit of Louisville’s skyline in the distance. 

I looked to see if I could go higher but all the limbs above me were dead.  I put my camera back in my pocket and headed back down.  I paused at one point because a neighbor was starting his car.  I don’t want to alarm people by jumping out of a tree.  That seems creepy.  So I waited and then quickly dropped down.  My pants were spotted with water and dark dirt, and my hands were a mess.  But it was a good climb.  The sky was pretty but oddly I was hoping to see a tornado and catch it on film.  That would be a great and terrifying experience. 

1-13-09:  I think it’s funny that I was disappointed that the sky cleared.  I have a strange desire for extremely dangerous situations. 

I also feel I should explain the part of the entry above that looks like this:  "… …"  That is where I could not read my writing of my original entry.  I can’t even make an educated guess using context.  No idea. 

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Last Friday evening (1-9-09) Drew and I didn’t know what we wanted to do.  I had reached my blogging limit and I needed to go climb a tree.  I strolled down Cabel Street to Adams and thought I’d take a right and go east.  I had only ever ventured that way once and didn’t get that far down the road.  As I went I saw some big trees on the other side of a aluminum fence to my right, some small sycamores along the road, and some okay trees up by the interstate.  I continued on to an area of woods near a large powerline tower.  There were some large trees there too but nothing was grabbing me.  I saw that the door in the fence along the interstate was open so I walked in.  It was basically just a long corridor of grass with an incline up to the highway.  I went along low enough so the cars couldn’t see me but close enough to check out the trees just on the edge.  They seemed smaller up close.  I guess looking at them down on Adams Street they look tall because they are up on the hill.  I finally settles on a hackberry tree which bent over the highway and was right next to a street light. 

I waited for break in cars and got started.  It isn’t the biggest tree so I was up fast. 

Cars were cruising past and I was in the spot light of the lamp. 

Clearly I was visible but no cars ever honked or flashed.  I settled into a crouching position

and began to time my shots for the cars streaking underneath. 

I looked up and saw that the moon was full and bright. 

We humans have really destroyed the darkness and the power of the moon.  With all these lights around me I didn’t even know the moon was out until I looked for it.  If I were out in the country it would be one of those nights where the moonlight casts shadows.  Yet without all the artificial light my pictures wouldn’t be nearly as easy or interesting. 

I started to get nervous that a cop car would drive by or that by now someone had reported my existence in the tree and will be coming for me.  I always fear on these interstate climbs that I will be seen as a sniper.  So I climbed back down the tree and paused at the bottom when I saw my shadow within the limbs.  It made this really great picture:

Then I hopped down and went straight to the fence and climbed a small tree to get over it.  My tree climb was done and now to the plan for the night.  Another late night at the Nachbar.