Perhaps a close up of the last 3-4 inches of a branch would help?

Oh no! It's spreading! The drinking and posting thing. just joking, but, Johnd your post is a bit strange sounding, i am not judging you, I have made many an assanine post on here while under the influence. One recently directed at Ken. I cringed when i read it sober. I see you said it is tongue in cheek though. Maybe you were poking fun at me, but maybe not. I am going to try to not be an ass on this forum, I think that would be best no matter what. But anyhoo, I thi nk those buds are "oaklike" and not like any Beech I have ever seen.

You guys are not particularly helpful. Or nice. My best guess, and this is only a guess, would be that it's a maple tree. In the second picture, to the right of your ear, there's a scale of bark separating from the top side that looks thin (which can make climbing hard). When a scale of maple bark separates it can be relatively thin like that, whereas other common trees, oak or walnut, usually have thicker, bark that doesn't scale as much. On the flip side, it doesn't look as scaly as I would expect from say cherry. Without more info I'd guess maple.

Yes, a Crape Myrtle. I have one in bloom and 2 that are setting buds right now.