I was out in my driveway this morning, just about to get into my car and head to work, when I heard a familiar clinking sound in the backyard.

That clinking noise, to me, signals only one thing: Somebody is climbing something! (The brilliant deduction of this semi-retired climber!).

And no doubt, there in my neighbor's yard, some thirty feet up in a maple tree and climbing higher, was an arborist from a local tree service.

I couldn't resist wandering over and watching him climb. Helmeted, harnessed and roped in, he carefully clink-clinked his way up.

Cool. Very cool.

We chatted ground-to-treetop for a few moments. I snapped a couple of photos. Then walked back to the car, glancing over my shoulder as he climbed further up among the branches.

John Colavecchio of Bartlett Tree Experts on the job this morning.

Now that's a job to have, I thought. A fine way to combine work and play. And outdoors no less. Although come the frigid days of mid-January, I might think better of such an idea...

Colavecchio climbs toward the sky.