¶ a life in numbers · 19 August 2005
My lifetime running distance, where for running purposes my life only began a year ago June, will hit 1000 miles about halfway through tomorrow's run. My first week of post-run/walk running I covered 9 miles; most weeks now I do 20. As of today I am on track for my arbitrary goal of running 1000 miles during calendar 2005. This isn't very much in serious running terms, but it's as far as I can go in as much time as I care to devote to the cause, and it's appealing to have an order of magnitude for a goal.
I am slightly behind on my equally arbitrary goal of reading 50 books in 2005. I've finished 28, which suggests 43 or 44 for the year, but the numbers don't account for the fact that I spent most of May and June reading travel guides and grammar manuals, so I expect the current extrapolation underestimates the eventual total. If I get to 46, I'll have read more books in 2005 than in any year since 1996. A graph plotting my reading against my writing would explain most of the fluctuations in the former, as if there is a conservation of the time I spend with written words.
Out of my goals of gaining and losing zero pounds in 2005, I have so far gained zero pounds and lost zero pounds, both of which trends point to a total calendar-year weight-gain and -loss of zero pounds.
Out of my goal of having been married for one year during the first year of my marriage, I completed one year, for 100% of my goal. During the first seven days of the second year of my marriage, I have successfully been married for seven days. My goal is to reach two years of marriage by the end of the second year.
Math is a comfort. If only anything important could be so simply measured.
I am slightly behind on my equally arbitrary goal of reading 50 books in 2005. I've finished 28, which suggests 43 or 44 for the year, but the numbers don't account for the fact that I spent most of May and June reading travel guides and grammar manuals, so I expect the current extrapolation underestimates the eventual total. If I get to 46, I'll have read more books in 2005 than in any year since 1996. A graph plotting my reading against my writing would explain most of the fluctuations in the former, as if there is a conservation of the time I spend with written words.
Out of my goals of gaining and losing zero pounds in 2005, I have so far gained zero pounds and lost zero pounds, both of which trends point to a total calendar-year weight-gain and -loss of zero pounds.
Out of my goal of having been married for one year during the first year of my marriage, I completed one year, for 100% of my goal. During the first seven days of the second year of my marriage, I have successfully been married for seven days. My goal is to reach two years of marriage by the end of the second year.
Math is a comfort. If only anything important could be so simply measured.