Interesting data

Oh my.

When I started to keep track of my mileage in January, I thought it would be a fun experiment to see how much I do move and how far I walk for a year. I didn't expect it to amount to much, but today I thought I'd look up the stats.

Now a word about that. I am not obsessed really too much. For the first 6 months, I just kept track of hikes/walks that I remembered to track. I had to manually start the app on the phone and let it do its thing. That really was impressive though.

I remembered enough times to chalk up 173 miles in the first half of the year.

When I got the Vivosmart 5 Watch from Garmin, I also tracked certain hikes I wanted to recall and to my surprise, when I forget, the watch buzzes me and tells me I've been moving for 5 minutes and it is going to record it as an 'official' walk. 

Neat. Since I am often walking all over the place just to check on the animals and move them from place to place, I don't have to think about 'recording' it. I found that on average each morning and evening that I walk a quarter of a mile while just doing chores. Interesting! 

This smarty watch also has a sleep thing on it. I don't know how accurate it is so I don't look at it too often. One night I went to bed early and it said I slept something like nearly 8 hours. Well, for a good part of that night, I was awake, lying still and thinking. 

You know--those 2AM thoughts when you solve the world's problems and rearrange rooms and dig new gardens in your head?

So I stopped looking at the sleep stats. When we had that huge storm on Monday night, I was up with Charlie who freaks out at storms. My sleep thingy said I was having very light sleep. NO kidding! 

So I use that guide more or less as entertainment value. If I awaken and feel refreshed, I've had a good sleep. If I feel like crap, I didn't. 

I'm not sure how the measurements on a wrist can tell whether a person is sleeping soundly or lightly. But I'm sure technology will prevail eventually.

The details from the different screens tell me that I use too much energy. Duh. I knew that. Still. 

So how far have I gone to date? 

423 miles? Seems impossible. But I am on the move all of the time...unless it is too hot and humid, I am taking many walks on our gravel road or around through the woods to just peer at things and observe nature. I also go on intended hikes and other times, just wander about looking for something to take a photo of.

During the month of July with all of the heat and humidity, I did not 'walk' a lot. I avoided that heat and humidity as it made me feel wiped out. Hiking in the forest or at KVR was not recommended due to the monster skeeters and deerflies.

The wonders of technology are pretty interesting. I did compare the phone app to the watch and to a measured distance and found it fairly spot on. 

Enough of that. 

I do like some of the convivences of this technical world. Especially digital cameras!

Yesterday's morning view from the porch....

This has to be the best response from USPS

I reported a missing package containing medicine for me to the USPS Customer Service department. The site recommended using an email inquiry as phone inquiries have long wait times.

My nano needles were on my 'Dashboard' to be delivered on Saturday, then a notice to be delivered on Monday. By Tuesday, all evidence of the package disappeared. I'd saved the tracking number to look for it. The last scan of the package was still in the facility it arrived in on the 21st in Tennessee.

Yikes.
Starting and stopping meds like this kinda sucks, you know? So I filled out the info and checked that it had medical supplies. 

Thank you for taking the time to notify us of your experience. Your USPS® Service Request 38186095 has been marked as resolved.

Please accept our sincerest apology for any trouble this may have caused you. We appreciate your business and look forward to serving you again in the future.

Yes, that was the reply. Your inquiry is closed and we hope to serve you. Our facilities have a high volume and are experiences delays for service.
Um yeah. Like have a nice day.

Their customer service person asks that I continue to monitor the package's progress. Um. It hasn't moved in 6 days. What progress is that?

Sigh. 90% of the time our local post office loses packages or leaves a comment that I am not home. Sometimes the postal person may not have enough room in their delivery vehicle for the amount of packages they have to deliver. Rural routes like mine have drivers using private vehicles for delivery.

It is not an easy job, but sometimes I have to laugh at the reasons I'm given for non delivery. 

Once it was because there was two cows in the road, another time it was a goat was near the mailbox. Another time the mail person said he couldn't find my house. Um. OMG....

I get it. The postal service, like everyone else is shorthanded. 

Sigh. 

I would have worded their automated response a bit differently though:

Something more like ~ we are so sorry for the trouble and we are thoroughly investigating it. Even if it were a lie, it would make me feel better about it.

~~~

The USPS issue wasn't resolved, but I will be able to pick up the nano needles through a local pharmacy. Which worked out just fine.

Still awaiting any sign of the package from TN.

~~ Update 4-28 early morning: the package has been scanned and found. Still another 24 to 48 hrs away! ~~

A Day Spent Tracking and Wandering

Small coyote track, my small hand for comparison.

On Wednesday I heard a lone howl of a coyote that would have sent shivers up my spine had I not been seeing this 'yote for a few months.  He/She has a trail that runs through my neighbor's cattle pasture and up into the woods.

I was hanging out laundry and caught sight of him trotting away.  I am assuming that it is a He because he is quite large and we watched him chase another coyote away just before deer hunting season.

I thought since we'd had a nice snowfall on Monday night, it would be fun to go out and see if I could track some coyotes and perhaps see what story the snow tracks would tell me.

I picked up the large coyote's tracks fairly close to our fence line and began to follow them.  Mr. Yote had a meandering track and it appeared that he was a lot more interested in rabbits than in any of my stock.

No, Morris did not go on this hike with me.  He gets pretty nervous when he smells coyote [smart dog] and he would run around and mess up the tracks I was looking at.

I followed several sets of tracks of 'yotes.  Most were smaller than this fellas tracks.

In some places the tracks were mingled with deer and rabbit tracks.  I lost the tracks in some of the heavier trafficked areas, but was able to pick them up again by carefully studying the snow.

Clever coyote walked right across this pile of downed limbs.

Interestingly enough, in some places, the tracks lead right across deer beds. I am sure they were not both there at the same time.

Nicely formed deer bed.

I didn't find any dens but I spent about two hours following tracks and I found a beautiful view of our place from the neighbor's pasture.

Our house and shed in the distance.  Coyote tracks in the middle of the photo.

I did a lot of looking and finally found The Big Boy Tracks!  He is huge, but he is not a wolf.

A wolf's tracks would be nearly as larger than my hand.

Big Boy Tracks

Wolf tracks for comparison

Later I did take Morris for his daily hike and he stuck pretty close to me in the creek bottom.

The trail we normally take was full of coyote tracks and places where the 'yotes had 'marked' their territory.

We are coming into the 'dogging' season for coyotes, so I imagine Morris will be spending less time with me in the woods and we'll do our daily walks on a leash on the gravel road.