What’s Up With That?
Category Archives: General Talk
Backpacking and the Grinch Who Stole Time
What’s Up With That?
Can you think of a place more time reliant than an airport? Thousands of flights each day all struggling for on-time take offs. Baggage and cargo that must be moved from terminal to plane, or plane to plane, or plane to terminal. Fuel trucks and ground crews maneuvered and dispatched to meet the airships and ensure their timely turnaround. Inside the bowels of the airport flight crews scurry to take command of their airy steads; to gallop upward; to depart – on time.
You can’t play every weekend
“You can’t play every weekend,” is something one would say to a child.
Children need to be assigned tasks, duties, and responsibilities. It is what parents should do – parent their children. Guide the children. The parents do this. The parents decide how children will allocate their time. Children can’t spend their entire childhood playing. Nor can children make the important decisions in their lives – they aren’t the parents.
If you have done a good job as a parent, your children will become self-sufficient and no longer need your help. They will leave home and not come back to live with you. This is the mark of good parenting – the children grow up, and leave the nest for good. Of course, a parent wants the children to come back to visit, but not come back to live.
My children are grown, self-sufficient and successful. I see no reason why I shouldn’t be allowed to play every weekend.
The Music of Backpacking and other Musings
August 27, 2014
No, this isn’t about iPods on the trail. I never take music on a backpacking trip.
I am in an airplane traveling at hundreds of miles per hour at an altitude above 30,000 feet. Once I get home I will have a quick turnaround to head out for a Labor Day camping trip with Joyce, so I won’t post this until that trip is done.
As is my preference, I have a window seat where I can see the earth below. Too far up to see any details, and often hidden by clouds. But clouds are good. Like a snowflake each cloud formation is unique and pleasurable to watch. Time passes, and I think of many things between my observations beyond my little window.
I am returning from a trip to Durham, North Carolina. As I am oft to do, I was able to throw together a quick trip. Like I did in the Cedars of Lebanon trip, my hike was a figure 8. Perhaps this is a new motif in my hiking — figure 8’s.
60 Minutes, Work, and the Quality of Life
WORK, BACKPACK, OR CAMP?
It is not usual to hear people complain that they don’t have enough free time to go backpacking or camping as often as they would like. I read about it all the time, usually under the guise of work/life balance.
Along with this complaint some seem to hate their jobs, give the impression they resent their spouse or significant other when commitments conflict with outdoor pursuits. Others feel trapped by family. Many feel a need to keep socially active or network with acquaintances on a regular basis. All of this at the cost of less recreation time in the outdoors. They say these responsibilities prevent them from doing what they enjoy.
Something is out of whack. They know it and everyone around them knows it. But nothing happens. Nothing changes. Deep down these are unhappy people going through the motions of living, dreaming about getting out into the wilderness.