Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Some goals for 2005

At the beginning of each year I set for myself some goals. For the last several years I have had as one goal to walk 365 miles, or an average of a mile a day. This is not casual walking such as from the house to the mailbox and back but what might be called dedicated walking. Usually I go to the Katy Trail about three miles from my house to walk. I prefer outdoor walking to indoor walking, but sometimes it too cold or its raining, so in that case I walk indoors. Just yesterday I logged three miles walking inside the Salvation Army Community Center which is located a mile or less from my house. I delayed going to the SACC today to finish an indexing project. By the time the afternoon was here, I opted for a nap instead of a walk. Perhaps that explains why I failed to reach my goal of 365 miles for 2004 -- that and the fact that I get interested in more things than I have time to do. I logged only 169 miles last year. One year (about four years ago, I think) I actually walked 400 miles.

A second goal I have is to reach 185 volkswalking credits. I have 170 credits now, so I need to get 15 in 2005 to make my goal. Every time a volkswalker completes a walk (either 5K or 10K, usually), he or she stamps his or her Event Record Book with a rubber stamp for that particular event. After one record book is completed, one moves on to the next book. I have been volkswalking since 1990. I average a dozen walks a year. Now that my work schedule has changed, I should be able to go on more volkswalks. To learn more about volkssports, go to www.ava.org.

A third goal I have is to revive The Secular Singers. Some past members have moved away, but I now have two other people willing to work with me to revive the music making group. The group is a project of the Humanist Association of Tulsa. I want to hold monthly rehearsals and I hope to stage two performances before the year ends. Anyone reading this who is interested in this idea, please contact me. We can always use more singers or musicians. Our purpose is to give voice to freethought ideas.

A fourth goal I have is to reach 100 "finds" at geocaching. I have now located 39 caches, so getting up to 100 should not be too difficult. Geocaching is a new sport in which participants seek to locate hidden caches by using a GPS receiver. To learn more go to www.geocaching.com. Five years ago this sport did not exist. Today there are more the 80,000 hidden caches.