The first half of 2024 wraps up with Danny outside of Pike Place Market from our trip to Seattle last summer.
Tag / DLM
FB10: Week 16
Despite some pretty good days, the week overall fell below 30,000 steps after two weeks above. A slow-ish Sunday got the week off to a poor start, finishing with 3300 steps. Things improved nicely on Monday, jumping up to 4800 steps. Things fell off on Tuesday, as I needed 27 steps just to reach 2000. An afternoon trip to Wrigley Field on Wednesday for my first Cubs game of the year pushed me back up to 5900 steps. Thursday fell off once again, dropping down to 2600 steps. Another increase on Friday put me within 18 steps of 4500. Graduation day for Danny on Saturday left me with 6700 steps, ending the week on a high note.
Total steps: 29,911
Daily average: 4273
Ever Grateful Ever True
On May 18, 1997, I graduated from Purdue University. Today, nearly 27 years later, Danny will do the same. It has been a quick four years, with a freshman year impacted by COVID, three years of football games, a trip to Florida for a bowl game, two trips to watch men’s NCAA tournament games, women’s basketball games in Mackey, and the ever-present band concerts both on and off campus. I could not be prouder of him and look forward to seeing what comes next.
School’s Out Forever
With a busy month of graduations ahead, Angelina getting her PhD from Boston University and Danny earning his BS from Purdue, we celebrate with this shot of Angelina and her house skeleton from my trip to Boston last October to celebrate our birthdays.
FB10: Week 14
An up and down week, starting strong and then building back up after work got in the way. A trip to Purdue on Sunday for Danny’s last band concert got the week off to a good start, finishing with 5000 steps. Things kept pace on Monday, coming just 39 steps shy of 5000. A midday escape down to Wrigley Field for a photo op with Cody Bellinger on Tuesday left me with 4500 steps. A dramatic crash occurred on Wednesday, as I needed 29 steps just to reach 3500. Things improved on Thursday, rising above 3800 steps. Friday continued the upward swing, finishing over 4100 steps, despite rainy weather which caused me to skip the White Sox game. Saturday jumped up again, ending the week on a high note with just 36 additional steps needed to get to 4500.
Total steps: 30,442
Daily average: 4348.9
2023-2024 Final Standings
Purdue’s season of redemption came one win short, falling to UCONN last night in the national championship game. It was the best tournament showing by a Purdue team since 1969, their last appearance in the championship game. Thanks to my donations to the John Purdue Club, I was able to score tickets to two home games, my first visits to Mackey for men’s basketball since 2015. I then was able to attend the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight games in Detroit, adding Little Caesars Arena to my stadium collection.
2023-2024 Team Records – Men
| Team Name | Won | Loss | Winning Pctg |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purdue Boilermakers | 4 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Tennessee Volunteers | 0 | 1 | 0.000 |
| Jacksonville Dolphins | 0 | 1 | 0.000 |
| Illinois Fighting Illini | 0 | 1 | 0.000 |
| Gonzaga Bulldogs | 0 | 1 | 0.000 |
On the women’s side, I made it to two Big Ten battles, seeing Caitlin Clark in person for the first time while enjoying Danny’s performances with the band.
2023-2024 Team Records – Women
| Team Name | Won | Loss | Winning Pctg |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iowa Hawkeyes | 1 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Indiana Hoosiers | 1 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Purdue Boilermakers | 0 | 2 | 0.000 |
Beware The Ides
We come to the start of meteorological spring with a picture of Danny, dressed up and preparing to blow his horn at a band concert last year at the Long Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Lafayette.
Should I Even Worry About A 10,000 Step Club?
My world was very different four years ago, as I was finishing up my fifth year using a Fitbit. I had just added 45 new 10,000 step days, my third best year to date, and, with upcoming trips to Boston and California already on the docket, things were looking good to add a good number more and add some new tales to this list of my Top 25 step days. Then, the corona virus happened, the world basically shut down for the next year or so, and I stopped needing to leave the house. I’ve worked from home since March of 2020, which theoretically gives me plenty of free time to go out for walks, but, in practice, leaves me homebound more often than not. I managed just two 10,000 step days for the just completed ninth year of Fitbit usage, which is my worst total since I started this whole step tracking thing some thirteen odd years ago, leading to a total of 285 since I started keeping track back in 2011. With that in mind, here’s the list of my Top 25 step days, which has now stayed static for four years.
1: 4/14/2018 – 27,470 steps
My best single day total is from my April 2017 trip to New York to see Angelina. The day’s excursions included trips to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, the Museum of the City of New York, Central Park, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Empire State Building.
2: 7/21/2018 – 27,278 steps
My July 2017 trip to Virginia, to hike up Catawba Mountain to McAfee Knob with Jeff and Val, fell just short of the top spot.
3: 6/6/2013 – 24,988 steps
2013’s trip to Disney World, which spent 5 years as my single day best, included excursions to both Epcot Center and the Magic Kingdom, and yes, falling 12 steps short of 25,000 still irks me.
4: 6/3/2019 – 24,665 steps
The first full day of 2019’s summer trip to Washington DC spent most of the day at the Smithsonian Zoo.
5: 8/8/2019 – 23,866 steps
Late in the summer of 2019, I spent two weeks in San Francisco for a work trip. On my last full day, I went out after work, walking to Pier 39 and then back the other direction to Oracle Park to see the Giants take on the Phillies. My totals would have been even higher, but I was dead tired and took an Uber back to the hotel after the game.
6: 3/18/2018 – 23,780 steps
My first day in Las Vegas for the 2017 IBM Think conference, the day’s totals include gallivanting around town, including a late night trip up to Caesar’s Palace from the MGM Grand to see Absinthe.
7: 10/24/2018 – 23,362 steps
My October 2018 trip to Boston to see Angelina for our birthday gives us our next entry. While she was in class, I took tours of Fenway Park and Harvard, before meeting up with her for a late lunch and then heading to the airport for the trip home.
8: 3/22/2016 – 22,493 steps
My one-time second highest day took place during the ill-fated trip to Disney World in March of 2016. The day’s excursion started at Hollywood Studios before heading over to Epcot Center with Jeff and Val.
9: 7/27/2013 – 20,592 steps
Still my highest total at home in the state of Illinois, the next entry comes thanks to the 2013 BTN 5K and a, for lack of a better word, misunderstanding about where I should be picked up after the race.
10: 12/29/2018 – 20,374 steps
We wrap up the top 10 with 2018’s trip to California and the trip to Disneyland to see Danny perform with the Lincoln-Way Marching Band.
11: 8/5/2017 – 20,218 steps
The next entry came in August of 2017 on the first day of my trip to Boston with Danny and Michael. After landing in town, we traipsed to the Science Museum, a breakfast joint, our hotel, and, finally, Fenway Park.
12: 7/14/2017 – 20,208 steps
Down to #12 is my 2017 trip to Disney World, a one day journey with Angelina to celebrate her high school graduation. Continue reading →
Fitbit Year 9
A year ago, I set a goal of 2,730,000 steps, an average of 7500 steps per day. Thanks to a combination of old age and my weight finally getting the better of me, I fell quite a bit short of my challenge, finishing well more than a million steps behind with only 1,528,938, the fifth straight year I’ve failed to surpass my yearly goal. My average step total per week was 29,402.65, which comes out to about 4200.4 steps per day. The median weekly step total was 28,354. My best week was Week 21, which just so happened to correspond with my trip to Seattle with Danny, propelling me to only 44,802 steps for the week. My worst week was Week 14, where unseasonably cold temperatures took a toll.
For reasons I don’t completely understand, I’m going to keep things as is for the upcoming year, in the hopes that I can finally reverse this downward trend. I am leaving my goal for steps per day at 7500, which would again bring me to a yearly total of 2,730,000 steps. Hopefully this sixth attempt, now one would assume that I’ve gotten this WFH thing down pat, is the one that sticks.
Fitbit IX – Week 51
Sports and snow combine for what passes as a good week these days. The week got off to a slow start on Sunday, needing 40 additional steps to make it to 3900. Monday was even worse, finishing just over 3500 steps. Tuesday bounced back a bit, beating Monday’s total by 11 steps. Things improved greatly on Wednesday, as a trip to West Lafayette to see Purdue do battle against Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes led to 7500 steps, my first time hitting my daily goal in 2023. Breakfast with Danny and a short walk on campus on Thursday left me with 5400 steps. A snowstorm, and the requisite snow blowing that followed, put me a mere 14 steps away from 6700. Falling temperatures on Saturday led to my worst day of the week, ending the day still 36 steps shy of 3400.
Total steps: 34,284
Daily average: 4897.7