Tag / DLM

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FB8 – Week 13

A pretty bad week, thanks to numerous work “emergencies”, but saved somewhat by another day over goal to end the week.  Things got off to a decent enough start on Sunday, as I managed to score 4600 steps thanks to some mid-inning pacing while watching the White Sox.  Monday saw a slight decline, as I finished 27 steps shy of 4000.  Tuesday was even worse, as I fell down to 3400 steps.  Wednesday saw a slight increase, as I finished with 3500 steps.  Thursday was the low point of the week, ending with a mere 2800 steps.  Friday saw a meager increase, jumping back up to 3600 steps.  A trip down to Purdue to see Danny’s band concert combined with 80-degree weather put me over 8200 steps, the second week in a row I’ve managed to have a single day above goal.

Total steps: 30,331

Daily average: 4333

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FB8 – Week 6

Another slightly better week, as I managed my highest non-Hawaii total since September.  The week got off to a decent enough start on Sunday, as a trip to Purdue to watch Danny toot his horn for the women’s basketball game led me 4 steps shy of 5100.  On Monday, decent weather helped me get to 5700 steps.  Tuesday saw a slight decline, falling to 4600 steps.  Wednesday fell down again, coming 34 steps short of 4500.  Thursday finished 2 steps ahead of the previous day, coming 32 steps shy of 4500.  Friday saw a nice increase, needing just an additional 3 steps to get to 4800.  Saturday’s total fell once again, down to 4400 thanks to a painful right foot.

Total steps: 33,643

Daily average: 4806.1

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Ready For Some Madness

After a year stuck at home thanks to corona virus, my first sporting event of 2021 was a trip to Indianapolis to see Purdue play in the NCAA tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium.  This month’s picture is from that trip, with Danny posing in front of the inflatable March Madness sign, before we were both disappointed by the outcome of that evening’s contest.

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Remember When There Was A 10,000 Step Club?

Things were a lot different two years ago, as I was finishing up my fifth year using a Fitbit.  I had just added 45 new 10,000 step days, my 3rd 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, and the world basically shut down for the next two years.  I’ve worked from home since March of 2020, which gives me a lot more free time, but also significantly cut down on my natural daily step totals.  All told, I managed only 5 10,000 step days for the just completed seventh year of Fitbit usage, which, granted, is better than last year and gives me a total of 270 since I started keeping track back in 2011.  With that in mind, here’s the list of my top 25 step days, which has stayed static for two years now.

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 →

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2021: The Year In Travel

In normal times, this is where I would take a look back at all of the trips I took over the past year and look ahead to what, if any. travel plans I already have for 2022.  Unfortunately, 2021 continued to be far from normal times, as the global pandemic raged on for a second year, though things did manage to open back up slightly.

My first “trip” of the year, if you can call it that, was in March.  On a Friday afternoon, I drove down to Purdue to pick up Danny, before continuing on to Indianapolis so we could watch Purdue in the NCAA tournament.  They managed to completely crap the bed, which made the whole effort worthwhile.  After the game, we traveled back the way we came and I was home early the next morning.

In August, I made my only big trip of the year, driving down to Florida for some fun in the sun.  I had rented a condo on AirBNB that was right on the water, which, thanks to the spacious deck, let me enjoy the view while relaxing and reading.  I also managed to make my first two trips to Tropicana Field, as the White Sox were in town to battle the Rays.  Those experiences did not turn out quite as well.

On the drive home, I stopped in Atlanta and managed to take in a game at Truist Park to see the Yankees battle the Braves.  The following day I completed my journey, making it home in the midst of a torrential downpour, which made the last hour or so of driving so much fun.

The only other trips were back down to Purdue for football games, one in October and two in November.  We didn’t manage to make the second game in November, but it’s the drive that matters.

Looking ahead to 2022, despite the rise in COVID cases due to the omicron variant, I’m planning to return to Hawaii later this month and the family is headed to Boston in May for Angelina’s graduation.  Other than that, there are some baseball trips I want to take this year, but nothing is solid just yet.  Here’s hoping that the world returns to some sort of normalcy, though I’m not optimistic.

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2022 Calendar

After a year of old pictures thanks to the corona virus murdering 2020, we are back in the game with next year’s calendar and, now that Christmas has come and gone, we can unveil the cover to this year’s calendar gift, given annually to my mom and sister, and made up of pictures I have taken throughout the year.  Lack of travel made getting pictures of Angelina difficult, but between last Christmas and this Thanksgiving, we were able to make it work.   As in year’s past. the calendar was produced by the good folks at Shutterfly and we will unveil each month’s photo(s) on the first day of the month throughout 2022.

This year’s cover features Angelina, Danny, and Michael masked up as we visited the primates from South America at Brookfield Zoo.

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Fitbit VII – Week 47

Yet another disappointing week, though at least I had a mysterious injury to blame for some of it.  Sunday was easily the best day of the week, as I drove down to Purdue to see the women’s basketball game with Danny in the band, finishing the day with 5800 steps.  Monday saw a significant decline, falling down to 3000 steps, as I began to feel a pain in my side.  Tuesday was slightly better, rising all the way up to 3600 steps.  Wednesday is when the pain was at its worst, so I spent most of the day in bed, which left me with just over 2000 steps.  I was starting to improve on Thursday and managed to get back up over 4200 steps.  Friday fell back down again to 3100 steps.  Saturday saw an improvement, rising back up to 4300 steps.

Total steps: 26,294

Daily average: 3756.3

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Fitbit VII – Week 44

Yet another disappointing week, which should have been boosted at the end by yet another football game, but was not.  Things got off to a poor start on Sunday, as I finished with 3500 steps.  Monday was slightly worse, as I dropped down to 3400 steps.  Tuesday saw a big increase, jumping all the way up to 4300 steps.  Wednesday fell back down again a bit, down to 4100 steps.  Thanksgiving festivities saw Thursday, fall back down 3200 steps.  Friday was the high point of the week, thanks to a trip back down to Purdue to bring Danny back to campus and to watch his band practice, earning me 5300 steps.  A rainy morning on Saturday meant skipping the football game and driving home, leaving me 20 steps shy of 4700.

Total steps: 28,476

Daily average: 4068

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Yuletide Greetings

We wrap up the year with looks back to a four different trips to the Florida, the Sunshine State.  Starting clockwise from the top left, we have sign to orient us as being in Florida, Angelina, Danny, and Michael posing with Phineas and Ferb from our 2013 trip to Disney World to celebrate Angelina’s 8th grade graduation, Angelina in front of the castle in Magic Kingdom from our one day jaunt to Disney World to celebrate her high school graduation, Danny and Michael trying to get their wands to trigger actions in Diagon Alley at Universal from our 2016 trip to celebrate Danny’s 8th grade graduation, Danny trying to get in to Disney World after breaking the scanning machine in 2013, Angelina, Danny, and Michael posing with the conductor of Hogwart’s Express from our 2010 Thanksgiving trip to Universal, and, finally, with Angelina, Danny, and Michael drying off after a ride or two on Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls.