Man, there's stories here. What a beauty of a thread.

I used to like climbing trees when I was much younger: no tree too formidable--for youth are indestructable. I held to that notion for a few years until the day I fell about six feet from the climbee. Seems I'd got too close to a red-winged blackbird's nest and the mother was very unhappy about that. I have wondered about 'what it takes' to battle something 250 times your weight. Still amazes me. It was also the reminder that some trees NEED gear to be climbed, a safety belt being one of 'em.

Thinking of it now, I guess that it's the incredible feats of courage in animals and people that amaze me. The Spartans at Thermopylae, the rescue personnel at 9/11 in NYC, the tiny little gal was something to behold, although I beheld very little of her, such was my haste to find another tree and get the heck out of her way, which seemed to be anywhere she decided it was.

I love the posts being put on this thread.