Return from Hiatus

A few days away from the blog, but enjoyable ones. Did some serious work on P4, walking and outdoors experience. Got away in the afternoon a couple of days ago for a hike and to camp out overnight in an isolated park. Roadwork along the way was annoying, and delayed my transit. But finally got out and had a beautiful hike in the very autumnal environment. I've been to this park many times before, but hadn't been to this one corner yet. The landscape is very nice. There's almost nobody else in this wild backwoods park during the week in the autumn, and even fewer in the winter. Last winter I found I was the only one there the night I camped over.

Out in the Wilds
All the camping areas are hike in for a few km at least. Since I arrived late I made for one of the nearer sites - only about a 4 or 5 km hike, but it was very nice. It was windy and I was expecting rain - and prepared for it. Sun is setting early these days - just before 7pm. I got my little tent up quickly and also strung up a tarp as wind/rain barrier. The only thing I forgot to bring was some tea -argh. It makes the fireside much more enjoyable.

Anyway, the night was very loud with the wind. It was mostly up at tree-top level and would periodically die to nothing, but then rise to a crescendo of white noise, and my tarp would occasionally flap around, though securely tied. Finally a few drops of rain near early morning, but otherwise a dry night, in spite of the forecast.

There was off and on drizzle while I made breakfast. Again, no tea, but I improvised. I had a small store of my usual high-end chocolate 71% Cocoa Camino stuff, and still had a 200cc milk supply and so heated up the milk, threw in the cocolate plus a bit of extra sugar and had a nice hot cup of HC instead of my morning tea. On the way out the drizzle picked up, but in shorts and a polyshirt I was comfortable still.

When hiking there's the trade-off. When do you don a coat in the rain. If you wait too long, you're already wet and so you just keep the rain off your now wet clothes. If you go too soon, you're too warm. I was lamenting that I had carried the extras but the rain forecast had never shown. It started heavier then, and I parked for a moment under a tree and put on my coat, and stretched my purpose-packed black garbage bag over my pack, but skipped the rain pants. It really picked up then, but I was quite comfortable like that and never bothered with the pants. It was only about an hour and a quarter's hike out. I felt quite energetic, and enjoyed the scenery immensely.

All in all a nice trip. The drive home was quicker, as I took a back route to avoid the construction. The rain was heavy all the way, but the traffic light.

Queries
Things seem to be slightly picking up on P1 and P2. I had a call from an embassy about a visiting delegation, and so the consulting side of my biz is engaging. On the permanent career exploration, I had a call back from a CEO who found my resume engaging and so I have followed up with soft resume as requested.

It's still a small sample size, but the personal resume drop off seems to be a bit more effective. I suppose it's easy to skip a resume on your screen, but one on your desk gets in the way, and is likely fairly rare these days.

I still wonder if there is some latent racism too, as my name, though northern European, has the look of an Iranian or Turkish name as well. So I wonder if that turns off the brain of some reviewers, given the activity in that part of the world - even though all my experience and life is Canadian experience.

Oh well - let's hope the pickup in activity is sustained.

Wrap
So back in the routine now anyway, and today is Friday. Oh well, a short blogging week. Given it's the cusp of the weekend, and given my nice walk in the outdoors, your immediate assignment for today is a simple one - find a tree (an outdoor one) and touch it. Feel the bark and leaves/needles if you can. Think for a moment what it must be like to live totally surrounded by those your entire life. How different would that have been. Let me know what you think!