I’ve begun operational planning next courses of action, and have decided to accelerate and expand “Ravenclaw” in scope. Originally my intention was to kick off a round of increased physical / mental training after getting my license, as extra insurance against petrol resources being cut off before I can get a paying job.

It is so named Ravenclaw, because its attributes and impact resemble the positives of a raven and it’s sharp effective claws, and at worst, I’ll just end up food for ravens in the process. Walking any where here, tends to be dangerous outside of downtown: they’re finally making plans to start building more sidewalks in the rest of this place. The main problem isn’t so much that there is no safe place to walk near most areas, so much as you can’t trust the cars not to flatten you. In some places here, it’s almost suicidal. Given numbers to, value of travel * risk factor – value of life; should we say, the value of life increasingly becomes a smaller number in that expression, the more and more negative impact family has on my goals. I’ll take my chances.

The first in the series of travel plans is fairly short: about 2.5km, covering two main roads and two side roads. The destination of course, being the sole refuge of sanity in this city: the library. I’ve said for years, I could practically ‘live’ there! That distance should take less than 45 minutes, even if some lousy driver forces me to practice evasive manoeuvres that I haven’t done in many years. Probably will be a lot shorter, given my normal walking pace. At that range, even if I ran instead of walked, I also won’t need to worry about bringing water. I’m like a human camel, between growing up in Florida and the working hours I’ve had to pull over the years. As necessary to achieve my aims, I’m more that willing to go well over 25km each way on foot if need be. The library being the closet target, makes it the best testing mark to begin clocking my general traveling pace, so I can expand the data set towards proper time estimates. Ops will likely begin next week, and begin scaling from there.

For me, the only practical limitation to my traveling distance by foot, is legality (e.g. some roads are closed to pedestrian traffic) and endurance factors. I wouldn’t mind walking from here to Alaska if needed. When I fish out my old canteen, I think I’ll calculate it’s capacity. I also have an old militaresque bag designed to be slung, which makes transporting things easier: like carting my laptop with me or a coat for nastier weather. Carrying things over distance isn’t a problem, so much as there’s only so many places you can ‘carry’ it in with you. In Georgian weather on the other hand, I can cover plenty of ground at a walk, and not become overly dehydrated in the process, so I don’t worry much.

If I’m going to be fought at every step, I’ll damn well exercise what can’t be taken for me. Having a entrance key, also makes sure I can’t be locked out (so easily) in retaliation. As long as things are going this way, I’ll take chances on foot… it beats the alternatives.

I consider life here, under flag of war – feuer frei!