Where Did March Go? Trudging vs. Blur.

Where did the month of March go? That's a question I've asked myself several times the past few days as I've gotten accustomed to writing April as part of the date. "Where did [Month] go?" is a question I've asked myself many times over the past several years. Sometimes months go by in a blur. March seems like one of them.

Time passing in a blur can be good or bad. When a month seems like a blur because I've been so busy doing enjoyable things, the blur is good. It's a sign that I've drunk deeply from the well of opportunities. For example, when April-May 2023 went by in a blur.

On the other hand, when I'm looking back wondering where all the time went because I didn't do much enjoyable, the blur is disappointing. It's disappointing because I let the opportunities slip away like water through my fingers. For example, my lament Where Did Summer Go? in September 2023.

Arguing for March being a bad blur rather than an enjoyable one is that the month felt like a lot of day-to-day trudgery. Every week at work was a busy week. Trudging through the days can make it feel like time drags slowly. And some things I did in March certainly feel like they were already two months ago— like that weekend trade show in Pasadena I worked for my company.

On the whole March's blur feels like... well, not exactly a good blur; but let's call it a balanced blur. There was the daily trudge but I also squeezed in some good times. That trade show was exhilarating even though it was also tiring. Chatting with customers and prospects, and spending time with colleagues in long, unscripted periods are two of the things I like about sales. And I managed to take off two days in March: one where I relaxed productively at home, and one where I got a head start on hiking in the Sierras.

Hiking Sierra Vista Open Space

I took advantage of my partial day off today to hike at the Sierra Vista Open Space with Hawk. It's part of a new-ish open space authority that we only learned actually had parks 5 years ago. And there are only 4 parks in it so far. But two of them, Rancho Cañada and Sierra Vista, we've now visited several times each.

Why the repeat visits? Well, for one, they're close. Two, Sierra Vista offers this view basically when you step out of your car:



That's a view across the Santa Clara Valley (Silicon Valley) past San Jose to the Santa Cruz Mountains beyond.

Today was a nice day for a hike as the hills are swathed in green. The grass on these mountains east of the valley is usually only green for about 6 weeks a year. Plus, we hoped to see some wildflowers.



The views up here are nonstop.



And San Jose seems like a place you could walk to.

So much for that old song, 🎵 Do You Know the Way to San Jose 🎵. Yeah, it's right there!



Wildflowers? Yeah, we saw a few. They're in bloom right now, especially the California poppies you see in this picture. They're in bloom but not super-bloom. There was a superbloom when we hiked here 5 years ago. The weather hasn't been right for that to happen again this year.