It turned out to be a busy week and I haven’t posted in a bit, so a quick catch-up:

I ran a the Susan Komen 5K this weekend at a time of 27 and change. Like I posted on facebook, it doesn’t make me a superhero, but compared to last year when that distance would’ve taken me 3 minutes to travel — in an ambulance — I’m feelin good!

I went out Sunday again and ran the 5k on Belle Isle just to see if it could be done two days in a row, and came in at about 30 minutes.

Other goings on… hmm… Well, we’re less than 2 weeks from departure for Isle Royale now. Everything’s falling into place, I have all of my gear save for bug spray and a backup compass.

I say backup because I don’t think I’ve told you about the first line of defense in navigation that has recently entered my aresenal: The Hawk.

The Hawk was a very fucking awesome birthday present from Emily. It’s a digital watch, compass, barometer, altimeter, thermometer and chronograph. It’s basically the “if you get lost with this thing on your belt loop, you never had a chance anyway” machine.

The compass makes navigation easier than an analog one because I can calibrate it to include the declination for true north, and since it gives you the bearing it’s pointed at, unlike an analog that only points north, it takes about 4 steps out of map-reading and navigating. And with the altimeter and a topographic map, I can likely find my location without having to triangulate by compass just based on my elevation.

So with the Hawk, and the hand-held GPS I’m borrowing from my pops, well, getting lost would be quite the feat. Especially since I already have all my campsites marked and saved in the GPS. I am more prepared for this trip than nature ever intended man to be.

Ummm what else?

Well, there were layoffs at my paper. I imagine we’ll hear about it today. A few managers were involuntarily laid off I believe, and the rest were voluntary.

So that’s that.

Aaaaand about it.

I’ll probably check back in soon.

lovety