Stepping Out – The Climb #874

Thursday 15^th July 2021

I seem to do a lot of work in the summer. There’s some seasonal nature to my productivity that somehow always sees me writing first drafts in July. Maybe the increased sunlight does something to my mood or something but then I’m never in it because A) I’d burn in 5 minutes flat and B) I’m writing.

I’ve been sat at a computer a lot the last couple of weeks. Be it writing or playing Warcraft, I’m always sat down. It’s resulted in serious anterior tilt, and it’s definitely not helped my pandemic weight.

I made a vow to myself that if it was nice but not too sunny or hot, I’d go for another long Geocaching walk today. Yes, I still have a novel to get done, and I’ve not yet backdated all the editions of The Climb, but I really could do with the exercise.

So today I got up early and did a session on The Accursed (which was actually really good) before heading off.

I had two aims on my walk. The first was to do some geocaches, even though the route I had planned had very few. That’s OK, I told myself. It’s little and often.

As it turned out, it was just as well, as whilst I packed a rucksack with water, I forgot to take my pen and hand sanitizer.

It was just as well I still had my second aim, which was to get some pictures for The Climb thumbnails. Originally I used to do those on the day of the edition and it was a daily ritual for me. Come the pandemic, I’ve been doing them in batches when I go out. It’s a case of trying to find different backgrounds, different lighting and then gurning differently in a selfie. As you can imagine, I tend to prefer quieter places to do this, and these walks are perfect.

Because I hate to have two pictures from the same walk next to each other (the idea is for the picture to look significantly different that if you see it, you’ll have a subconcious visual cue as to whether you’ve read the edition or not. So once I have the pictures I tend to scatter them forwards, trying to put a big enough gap between them.

Therefore, each photo session is both trying to fill in gaps whilst ensuring things are as far apart as possible. Technically, I have pictures that won’t be seen until this time next year because I take so many that I end up scattering a long way forward. But I’ve also noticed, doing the backlog, that there are a few gaps coming up.

Of course, I never used to scatter forwards or even worry about the thumbnail until the day of the edition, but with the pandemic I’m now concerned if I don’t have the next 30-40 days already shot.

So I took a load of photos. I even took a cap with me, despite it being too muggy for one, just to try to make a second batch of photos (some with cap off, some with cap on).

In between it all, I did have time to enjoy the walk. I put on a new audiobook and enjoyed the countryside, taking a new route to a Pokemon Gym I’ve never really been to, and then walking all the way home.

I was dead at the end of it and it took most of my day, but I got all the writing out the way early, and I have a new batch of pictures for The Climb to turn into thumbnails. But most of all, I got some exercise.

I’ll ache tomorrow so will rest up as it’s Go Fest weekend this weekend in Pokemon Go, and I suspect we won’t just be sat at home.