Mile 546. Lou went off to pick up eggs, buttermilk, and lemons at the store this morning. Sounds like something good's cooking in the kitchen! To add a hill to the mix, Tortoise dropped into Confluence Park on the Cactus Cliff trail at the west end of Center Street. As soon as he got to the trail junction at the bottom, he turned around and went right back up. That 14% grade will get you every time!
There are two walking thoughts today. Another high quality one by Henry Eyring, followed by one from Tortoise, telling you another thread of his history. This time it is about a math teacher from the eighth grade, Mr. George Wendt, who was energetic and loved helping students find "aha!" moments. We lost Mr. Wendt at age 75 to lymphoma a few days ago, so Lou is in reminiscing mode ...
Cheerio!
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| Half a block to go on Center Street, and a glimpse of the goodness just ahead. |
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| Does it look like 14% to you? |
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| Smiling Tortoise thanks you for the inspiring Cactus Cliff Trail! |
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| It would have been just short of a 3 mile round trip to go directly to the store. You know this magical mystery route is better! |
Today's walk was 4.16 miles, done in 1:16:10 hours at an average pace of 18:19 minutes per mile. This route had an average tortoise rating of 3.6, earned by climbing 263 feet in the 1.00 mile uphill portion. (Note: For purposes of calculating tortoise ratings, climbs shorter than a mile are rated that way, which has the effect of producing an easier tortoise rating to account for the effect of a steep grade over a short distance.) Average elevation was 3236.
Here are the overall stats so far for 2016:
546.45 miles walked, compared with Lou's goal for this date of 531.85.
37,061 total feet climbed so far in 2016, compared to a year-to-date goal of 32,732. Lou hopes to climb more than the 61,316 feet he climbed in 2015 -- but in less time each day than his 1:07:04 hour per day average in 2015. So far in 2016, Tortoise's walks have averaged 58:04 minutes each.
His average pace so far in 2016 has been 17:44.6 minutes per mile, compared with his 18:25 minute per mile pace in 2015.
Lou has walked 368 consecutive non-Sundays since his 8 missed days May 2-11, 2015. Overall he has walked on 471 of the 48o non-Sundays in 2015-16, a 98.125% consistency rating.
And now for today's walking thought ...
"Remember that when the Lord lets us encounter someone in distress, we honor the good Samaritan for what he did not do as much as for what he did. He did not pass by on the other side even though the beaten traveler on the road was a stranger and perhaps an enemy. He did what he could for the beaten man and then put in place a specific plan for others to do more. He did that because he understood that helping may require more than what one person can do."
The tortoise is smiling!
And now for some bonus material on Mr. Wendt:
It's been fifty years now since a young twenty-five year old teacher, not long from school himself at nearby UCLA, took on the task of helping six classes of thirty-five or so twelve and thirteen year olds each, discover day by day the joy of gaining confidence and learning how to solve problems. It wasn't just math to Mr. Wendt, and that was the beauty of it. Yes, Tortoise loved math anyway, so you may discount the value of this particular teacher. Don't. Lou was used to being asked to sit in the back of math classrooms and work independently while the daily lessons were being taught. Not so with Mr. Wendt. He was interested in every student, whether they grasped the material easily or they did not. He was the kind of teacher that you always wondered what he did with the rest of his life. You cared for him because he cared for you.
Frankly, Tortoise hadn't had much luck finding Mr. Wendt, even in this age of quick internet searches. There was always the actor with the same name that got most of the attention, which was understandable. And who would have guessed to look for him near the Stanislaus River in the gold mining hill country of Angels Camp? Near the bustling agribusiness communities of Modesto, Turlock, and Stockton, but a world apart.
And then came the word on the Facebook group "I Survived Paul Revere Junior High". It's the sort of group you join but visit only occasionally, but then something hits your page, because you are part of the group, that jolts you. Something like:
"George Wendt passed away."
And then you remember what you knew all along. He touched the life of everyone he met. Just like many of us do. You find out he married three years after you had his class, and that his professional love even above helping young students gain confidence and learning how to solve problems, was to help them discover wild rivers. Because he had the chance to do that himself as a student.
One final thought for my dear Wounded Duck before leaving you to marvel at the love expressed to George in the comments in that Facebook group, shared below. The fact that he came to love wild rivers by discovering the Colorado in Glen Canyon before the dam created Lake Powell helps this old tortoise finally see what Edward Abbey and his Monkey Wrench Gang rebel friends never could show him. And yes, he's glad the government didn't build those dams in the Grand Canyon. He always was. Because Lou had seen that canyon and knew of its exquisite beauty. He couldn't grasp the same was true of Glen Canyon, because in his memory it was always Lake Powell, and that is beautiful too. But not in the same way.
Thank you, Mr. Wendt. You are still helping people see even now that you are gone from us for a time.
The links work and are worth checking out ...
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