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Mile 1,018.  Tortoise was fortunate to get today's walk done.  Weather conditions all over the state were cold, quite windy, and in many places snowy ... with snow threatening here.  Lou likes to walk.  Every day.  He likes being safe even more.  Business took him to St. George late in the afternoon.  It was in the 20s and damp with low cloud cover.  Pictures of this section of the Virgin River Trail just northeast of the Crosby Confluence Park have been posted here before, the difference today is the mountains at the horizon aren't visible because of the low clouds. 

The big positive is that the winds that had steadily battered the office all day in Hurricane were not blowing in St. George at that moment.  Tortoise can deal with cold and damp, just bundle up and go.  High winds are another matter.  So with that blessing, Tortoise was off and walking!  

For additional pictures, today's walking thought by Russell Nelson, and more, please click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

Today's walk was 2.06 miles, with 17 feet climbed in 31:39 minutes, giving it an average 6.1 tortoise rating. 336 calories were burned on this walk.  

My walking map provider, www.mapmyfitness.com, has changed formats recently and the maps haven't transferred to this blog as well since.  Instead of embedding the map, let's try this link and see if that works better for you to see where Lou walked today:

http://www.mapmyfitness.com/routes/view/604431140

Here are the overall stats so far for 2014:

1,018.36 miles walked, which is 101.73% of my 2014 goal.

318:58:59 hours walked, which is 101.91% of my 2014 goal (which was to walk 1 hour a day each day for 313 days)

48,768 total feet climbed 

161,331 calories burned
99.68% of the year has passed

I've walked 7 consecutive non-Sundays since my last missed day on December 23, and overall have walked on 297 of the 312 non-Sundays thus far in 2014, a 95.19% consistency rating.

The purpose of the percentages is to have a higher percentage of distance and time walked than of the year. This tells Tortoise that he is on track. Yes, this is more numbers than you are likely interested in, all Tortoise can say is he's really good at setting high goals and having them slip away because he doesn't do them every, every day.  (If you doubt this, compare Tortoise's 2013 walking record with 2014)

And now for today's walking thought, initially presented in April 1994 ...

"I was amused recently when one of our grown children confided that she had always thought that she was her daddy’s favorite daughter. She was surprised to discover later that each of her eight sisters harbored that same feeling. Only when they had become mothers themselves did they realize that parents hardly have favorites. (Incidentally, our only son never had to wonder who was our favorite son.)

"Our Father in Heaven loves all of His children, too. Peter taught that “God is no respecter of persons:

“But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.” ⁴

"Yet His children can be so intolerant with one another. Neighboring factions, whether they be identified as groups or gangs, schools or states, counties or countries, often develop animosity. Such tendencies make me wonder: Cannot boundary lines exist without becoming battle lines? Could not people unite in waging war against the evils that beset mankind instead of waging war on each other? Sadly, answers to these questions are often no. Through the years, discrimination based on ethnic or religious identity has led to senseless slaughter, vicious pogroms, and countless acts of cruelty. The face of history is pocked by the ugly scars of intolerance.

"How different our world would be if all parents would apply this inspired instruction from the Book of Mormon: “Ye will not suffer your children … that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another. …

“But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another.” ⁵

To watch, listen to, or read this message in full, please visit https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1994/04/teach-us-tolerance-and-love?lang=eng  #ShareGoodness

The tortoise is smiling!