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Mile 1,000.  Bluejay was the closest to figure out what Tortoise was trying to do in the past few weeks on his goal for this year -- he thought Tortoise was trying to do it before December 1.  Having as much of Lou's family to enjoy it with him was his motivator to try to do it today ... before some return to their homes after Thanksgiving.  Tortoise enjoyed Bluejay's singing (see yesterday's comments) over this happy day.

Lou picked the warmest (44 degrees), calmest part of the day to do his one thousandth mile by going a half mile northeast from the Crosby Family Confluence Park with Floryne, Becca, Josh, Ethan, Kate, Riley, and Maude.  They then turned around and retraced their steps.  Lots of celebratory pictures when you click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

Enjoying the halfway point

The energy of youth.  They probably ran two miles while the rest of us walked one.

Approaching the final turn.

Made it!

Happy day!

Today's walk was 1.01 miles and had a 6.1 tortoise rating earned by climbing 10 feet in the 0.51 mile uphill portion.  Average elevation was 2544.  This walk burned 145 calories in 31:41 minutes.

Here are the overall stats so far for 2015:

1,000.11 miles walked which is 99.81% of Lou's 2015 goal.  On this day in 2014, Tortoise had walked 942.67 miles.  

308:00:33 hours walked which is 98.41% of the 2015 goal (which is to walk 1 hour a day on the 313 days other than Sunday in the year).  

54,222 total feet climbed, compared with 46,127 feet on this day in 2014.

150,120 calories burned.

91.05% of the year has passed.

The purpose of the percentages is to have a higher percentage of both distance and of 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 walking record up until 2013 with 2014 or 2015 ... for him, it is what it takes to be consistent.  He hopes you find what works for you).

And now for today's walking thought, with thanks to Josh ...

This story has been written in numerous versions, this one from http://www.motivation123.com/news108.txt sums up Tortoise's motivation for all this walking, and thankfulness for life beyond cancer in general:

"On average, people live to be seventy-five years old. Some
longer, some shorter, but the average person will reach
this age. Realizing this, on a sunny Saturday afternoon, 
Bill did some simple calculations to figure out that the 
average person has 3,900 Saturdays in his or her lifetime.

"Being fifty-five, Bill had 1,000 Saturdays left to live. He
went to a small toy store in town, and bought every marble
they had, 1,000 in all. Later that night, he placed all of
the marbles in a large glass bowl that he placed in the
living room.

"As each Saturday passed, he would take one marble out of
the bowl and throw it away. Bill watched as the bowl's
contents shrank, and he realized that he didn't have
forever to create a happier life. Each day he felt negatively
about his life was one less day he had to be happy. 

"One day, his last Saturday will come. Bill never looked at
his life this way. He never faced the fact head-on that
life was short and there is a limited amount of time to
make the most of it.

"He looked at his current priorities and did some
rearranging. At the top of the list he put spending time
with his family and friends, appreciating what he had, and
enjoying each moment he was alive.

"Without changing his external world, Bill's life was
completely different. He didn't earn more money, lose
weight, or create new relationships. He simply took what he
had and looked at it in a whole new light.

"After making the marbles a part of his life, his new
attitude enabled him to fix the areas in his life that were
lacking. Before he felt powerless to change anything, and
only wished for things to improve without doing anything.
Now he was taking positive actions to create a life that
made him feel good.

"We all know that we can't live forever, but thinking of it
in these terms can really help to put things in
perspective. It makes you realize how valuable each day is,
and what a loss it would be to not enjoy each one."

The tortoise is smiling!