DAY 18
04.22.07
TREE 21Another amazing, warm spring day. Thunder Over Louisville was awesome and the whole day yesterday was fun. And today I had a great bar-b-que at Drew’s. On the way there I stopped at Seneca Park, and instead of being picky, I chose the closest tree to where I parked. It was right along the road and next to the sidewalk. So I hopped up, climbed and marked my spot. The whole time there was this old guy with his dog who never listened to him. But it didn’t stop him from saying “NO” and “Come ‘ere” and the dog’s name over and over. It was a little distracting and annoying. As for the climb, it was fun, challenging, and at one point took some clever problem solving to get down.
4-22-08: It’s Earth Day so go out and climb a tree and celebrate Earth.
I don’t know if you remember last year’s Thunder, but it was incredible. I’m not talking about the fireworks. They were cool, but the day itself was gorgeous, and I hung out at Will’s during the day and got wrapped in cellophane and packing tape for the first time. Then we went to a cook out across the hall at Matt’s with a bunch of Louisville Orchestra people. This year’s was fun too, but the weather blew. I found this old video of me getting wrapped and I thought I would share it again:
Yesterday I climbed in my backyard around 10PM. I attached three flashlights to my body again but this time filmed it. I did it at normal speed so it goes a little slow and it did some weird auto-focus stuff. I need a camera person, an editing staff, and someone who pays for it all. Just saying.
Sorry
I am sorry to the previous comment maker. I had some serious trouble editing my entry and ended up solving the problem by deleting it all and starting over. Therefore the comment got deleted, so I will repost it here:
Subject: How do you pick the trees to climb?
Hi,
Some trees are huge and have lots of branches to climb and I can see the attraction, but a couple seem a little random on the side of a street/highway? Why pick one instead of the one next to it?
Also, do you mark the trees on a map – would be interesting to see.
Hello,
I started this project looking for those trees with many limbs. They are fun but ultimately predictable. I then began to try different trees that looked like a challenge. Trees with few branches or trees that connect to other trees. My idea of what constitutes a fun climb changed and I was always looking for different kinds and shapes of trees to try. Every different species offers different experiences as well, so if the obvious tree was something I had climbed before, I would pick the one next to it that was different. As I look back on all of my favorite climbs, I would say most are not the trees with many limbs, they were the ones I never thought I could climb, but found a way and it improved my abilities and expanded my possibilities.
As for the map idea, that has been discussed, but not executed. With Google Maps though, it seems very possible and quite interesting. Maybe at the end of the year blog I will post that final result.