WHAT CHANGED?

Many times over the past two years (in fact, tomorrow will be the two year anniversary of this blog) I have reminded what few readers this blog has, that that real reason that I do this every day is because I personally enjoy going back and reading some of these daily entries as time passes. I admit that I try to make this blog somewhat interesting for the few people who have the spare two minutes each day to see what I am pontificating about. For many months, the average number of visitors each day has been somewhere near fifty. Beginning on December 7th, for a reason that completely eludes me, the daily visitors to this blog has 'skyrocketed' to nearly 300. I have no idea why. I always thought that I might be 'discovered' if not for my successful weight loss, then at least for my 'razor sharp' and/or  my twisted political viewpoints. However, before I get too jazzed about my increased readership, here are the stats from 'drudgereport.com' which is a website that I visit numerous times each day. For comparison, my blog has accumulated just over 50,000 hits in two years. 

VISITS DRUDGEREPORT.COM 12/25/2016

020,179,375 PAST 24 HOURS
853,034,180 PAST 31 DAYS
10,675,624,505 PAST YEAR.

It's time for me to do my 'Rain Man' thing.  If the Drudge Report had 20,179,375 visits in the past 24 hours, then it was visited approximately 840,807 times per hour, which translates to 14,013 visits per minute.  In the last four minutes, the Drudge Report has had more visitors to its website than my blog has had in the past 2 years. But we should compare apples to apples, right?  How many minutes has my blog been active?  Two years, is 730 days, which is 17, 520 hours, which further is translated to 1,051,200 minutes.

Now I have a good comparison... My blog needed to be active for over ONE MILLION MINUTES for it to be visited as many times as the DRUDGE REPORT is visited in just 4 minutes.  OK, on second thought, perhaps I should have not reported that my visits to the blog 'skyrocketed' beginning on December 7th. But they did increase. What changed? I do not know. 

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Your Food Diary For:

Saturday, December 24, 2016

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Quaker - Instant Oatmeal- Maple	800	160	10	20	1,300	60
Kirkland - Pre-Cooked Bacon	240	0	18	18	1,050	0
	1,040	160	28	38	2,350	60
L U N C H
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich, 2	760	60	34	18	310	34
	760	60	34	18	310	34
D I N N E R
Home Made - Potato Latkes	852	186	28	34	4,524	15
Black Angus Sirloin Steak	360	0	24	33	0	0
	1,212	186	52	67	4,524	15
S N A C K S
Klondike Vanilla Ice Cream Bar	500	70	34	6	170	56
	500	70	34	6	170	56
Totals	3,512	476	148	129	7,354	165
Your Daily Goal	3,495	437	116	175	2,300	131
Remaining	-17	-39	-32	46	-5,054	-34
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
	*You've earned 1,565 extra calories from exercise today

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       Your Exercise Diary for:

Saturday, December 24, 2016

Cardiovascular	Minutes	Calories Burned
ELEVEN MILE URBAN HIKE	166	1,879
Daily Total / Goal	166 / 30	1,879 / 590
Weekly Total / Goal	929 / 210	9,885 / 4,130

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During my eleven mile urban hike yesterday, I tried my new headlamp. I know that it looks a bit goofy. I also know that there have been a few times in recent weeks when this would have come in very handy when my hiking extended into darkness, especially where there was very little light to mark the way forward. These days, I always carry a flashlight with me. I also think that this headlamp will be permanently stowed in my backpack for the times that it is necessary. 

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from wikipedia...

Rain Man is a 1988 American road comedy-drama film directed by Barry Levinson and written by Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass. It tells the story of an abrasive and selfish young wheeler-dealer, Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise), who discovers that his estranged father has died and bequeathed all of his multimillion-dollar estate to his other son, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman), an autistic savant, of whose existence Charlie was unaware. 

Charlie learns more about Raymond, including that he is a mental calculator with the ability to instantly count hundreds of objects at once, far beyond the normal range of human subitizing abilities. 

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subitize

[soo-bi-tahyz]

• Word Origin

verb (used without object), subitized,subitizing. Psychology.

1.

to perceive at a glance the number of items presented, the limit for humans being about seven.

I personally, do not have any subitizing abilities, nor do I have a mental calculator. The reason that I identify with the character of Rain Man is that sometimes I just need to carry out mathematical problems to somewhat absurd exactitude.

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RAIN DELAY

I have hiked, walked, marched, stepped, traipsed, strolled, rambled, sauntered, and schlepped on  trails, beaches, hills, mountains, valleys and roads for the past many weeks and months. Mostly I have been lucky and avoided rain. Remarkably, during my epic Half Dome Hike in Yosemite last October, our group actually did manage to catch rain, which was no small accomplishment since it more or less, 'never' rains in California and rains even less during droughts. On that hike we beat the odds. On my hikes closer to home I have been very lucky and mostly avoided getting wet other than from own sweat which is not inconsequential on days when the temperatures are north of 90°F.  I was caught in real thunderstorm during a recent hike in Wisconsin, but that was memorable as it was so rare for that to happen to me. So, is there a point to any of this preamble? Yesterday when I woke up, the skies somehow managed to look darker after the dawn than they had during the actual night. This is an optical illusion of course, but it is still very unsettling to see such darkness when a new day is first unwrapping itself. Still, I thought I might take a little walk. Sometimes, dark skies, are blown away and rains don't come. Yesterday was not one of those days. An early morning hike was curtailed when the rains started when I was only 1 mile from home. I took refuge in a grocery store thinking I could wait out the storm, but the forecast was for a few hours of continuous rain - so I simply walked back the one mile in the pouring rain.  In the late afternoon, the rains had completely dissipated, although the threat for more had not. Still I ventured out, managed an eight mile hike which was marred only by a mild drizzle towards the end. When the day was done, I still had managed to walk ten miles. Always an accomplishment, no matter how dubious. 

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rain-shortened early morning walk, not even three miles.

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Your Food Diary For:

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Nature Valley Crunchy Granola Bar	380	58	14	6	270	22
Steel Cut Irish Oatmeal	600	108	10	16	0	4
	980	166	24	22	270	26
L U N C H
Home Made - Garden Salad, 1 bowl	100	6	0	4	400	4
Fried Chicken Tenders	300	17	20	14	766	2
Hash browns - Hash Browns	200	46	0	6	86	3
Quaker Chewy - Chocolate Chunk	180	38	4	2	160	14
	780	107	24	26	1,412	23
D I N N E R
Curry Chicken With Rice	800	233	23	46	1,740	9
	800	233	23	46	1,740	9
S N A C K S
Generic - Hersheys Dark Chocolate	500	28	38	9	100	11
Roundy's - Honey Nut Tasteeos, 3 cup	440	88	6	8	560	36
	940	116	44	17	660	47
Totals	3,500	622	115	111	4,082	105
Your Daily Goal	4,298	537	143	215	2,300	161
Remaining	798	-85	28	104	-1,782	56
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
	*You've earned 2,368 extra calories from exercise today

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       Your Exercise Diary for:

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Cardiovascular	Minutes	Calories Burned
2.6 mile rain-shortened hike	34	512
EIGHT MILE afternoon hike	96	1,770
Add Exercise Quick Tools
Daily Total / Goal	130 / 30	2,282 / 590
Weekly Total / Goal	400 / 210	6,436 / 4,130

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SWEET HOME CHICAGO

After 6 days (five nights) in Houston, Texas I returned to Sweet Home Chicago by noon on my Southwest Airlines flight.

Apparently I brought the rain with me.  And I had forgotten that Chicago can be a bit colder this time of year as well.  I did set out for a 10 mile walk in the late afternoon early evening.  It was rainy and it was cold and windy.  I found myself walking against the wind which made it all the more difficult.  My ten mile walk was broken down into two walks: 7.82 miles and 2.20 miles.

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Your Food Diary For:

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

BREAKFAST	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar
John McCann Steel Cut - Oat Meal, 1 cup	600	108	0	16	0	0
General Mills - Nature Valley - Oats 'n Honey Crunchy Granola Bar, 4 bars	380	58	12	8	320	24
Dagoba - Organic Chocolate Dark 59%, 2 oz	270	30	20	3	0	23
	1,250	196	32	27	320	47
L U N C H
Forelli - Rice Cake, Multigrain, Thin, 18 slice	360	72	0	0	360	0
MARIANO'S - HUGE SPINACH SALAD, 1 SALAD	500	0	0	0	0	0
	860	72	0	0	360	0
D I N N E R
WHOLE FOODS 5938 - UNSWEETENED BANANA CHIPS, 30 g (1/4 cup)	170	16	10	2	5	1
Campbell's Chunky - Manhattan Clam Chowder, 2 cup	240	36	6	10	1,600	6
	410	52	16	12	1,605	7
S N A C K S
Ritz - Toasted Chips 100 Calorie Bag, 1 bag	100	16	3	1	190	2
RITZ - SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CHIPS, 2 package	200	32	6	2	380	4
Southwest Airlines - Peanuts, 2 Bag	140	4	12	6	190	2
	440	52	21	9	760	8
Totals	2,960	372	69	48	3,045	62
Your Daily Goal	4,293	536	143	215	2,300	161
Remaining	1,333	164	74	167	-745	99
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar
	*You've earned 2,363 extra calories from exercise today

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       Your Exercise Diary for:

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Cardiovascular	Minutes	Calories Burned
Walking, 4.5 mph, very, very brisk pace	103	1,525
Walking, 5.0 mph	25	515
MFP iOS calorie adjustment	N/A	323
Add Exercise Quick Tools
Daily Total / Goal	129 / 30	2,363 / 590
Weekly Total / Goal	257 / 210	4,890 / 4,130

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TOTAL CALORIES CONSUMED 2960 CALORIES
TOTAL CALORIES BURNED 2040 CALORIES
NET CALORIES 920 CALORIES
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fitbit day 55

25715 steps
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