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I suck at not being creepy.
See, I was getting off the bus on the way home, and someone else got off at the same time. They seemed to be heading in the same direction I was. When that happens, I usually try to speed up and go first, so I don't accidentally make someone feel like they're being followed. However, this person was walking much faster than I was so I let them go ahead. I was happy to slow down, since the tread on my boots is getting pretty worn. Traction on the snow and ice has been a problem. So there I am, slowly making my way down the hill, mostly looking down to carefully choose my footsteps.
At this point, it is important to share that I've been reading The SAS Guide to Tracking. I'll never have the time or opportunity to really practice the skills, but there are a lot of habits of awareness that I've been trying to work on. With all the snow recently, it's been a fun game to play when walking around. It's important to develop a sense for how prints change through exposure, so you can estimate how long they've been there. Getting a sense for what the size, stride and deepness of a print tells you about the person who left them is also important. I've been doing that with my own prints around the house, but that's a pretty limited sample.
So, without really thinking about it, I start following this person's footprints. Since I knew when they were made and by whom, it naturally seemed like a good opportunity. With the confusion of previous prints, picking out a specific set is really hard. I try some of the techniques for looking ahead and following a track as a whole instead of sign-by-sign. Which was kind of cool, and a nice distraction.
That's when I realize that I'm stalking someone. Over the span of 90 seconds I've gone from trying to not make someone feel followed to tracking their footprints through the snow. So, yeah, I kind of suck at not being creepy.
See, I was getting off the bus on the way home, and someone else got off at the same time. They seemed to be heading in the same direction I was. When that happens, I usually try to speed up and go first, so I don't accidentally make someone feel like they're being followed. However, this person was walking much faster than I was so I let them go ahead. I was happy to slow down, since the tread on my boots is getting pretty worn. Traction on the snow and ice has been a problem. So there I am, slowly making my way down the hill, mostly looking down to carefully choose my footsteps.
At this point, it is important to share that I've been reading The SAS Guide to Tracking. I'll never have the time or opportunity to really practice the skills, but there are a lot of habits of awareness that I've been trying to work on. With all the snow recently, it's been a fun game to play when walking around. It's important to develop a sense for how prints change through exposure, so you can estimate how long they've been there. Getting a sense for what the size, stride and deepness of a print tells you about the person who left them is also important. I've been doing that with my own prints around the house, but that's a pretty limited sample.
So, without really thinking about it, I start following this person's footprints. Since I knew when they were made and by whom, it naturally seemed like a good opportunity. With the confusion of previous prints, picking out a specific set is really hard. I try some of the techniques for looking ahead and following a track as a whole instead of sign-by-sign. Which was kind of cool, and a nice distraction.
That's when I realize that I'm stalking someone. Over the span of 90 seconds I've gone from trying to not make someone feel followed to tracking their footprints through the snow. So, yeah, I kind of suck at not being creepy.