The Planning Process Made Visible in the Snow

I went out to look at some tracks, adventurously in my bare feet, and they were deer tracks going uphill from left to right. Later I was noticing my own footprints and how I seemed to weave a pretty sketchy path from here to there and back. 

But looking more closely you can see the whole logic of it. On the way out I went in a straight line out and down the steps and a pace or two further. Then I started to focus on the shortest path over to the deer tracks and headed that way. But in the process the local conditions included a patch of grass that looked like less reliable footing, so I curved around slightly to the right of it. Then I looked at the deer tracks, took a step uphill, then reversed direction. I remember that after a few steps back the way I came, I was having trouble putting my new footprints into the old ones so, after that, I am kind of weaving my way around, up onto the deck and in.