Let’s Talk Reading!

Reading is a big deal to me after the skill came easily when I was in first grade.Father Gorman thought I was a big kid who could whoosh right through school and had me skip kindergarten. I was five.

I am blessed with a strong visual memory. I quickly recognized whole words. I totally bought into the school’s SRA reading program with its special box of activity cards and all sorts of procedures to check off boxes on a chart and record individual progress. Plus we had permission to get up from our desks and pull cards from the big box to independently move through the lessons at our own speed. Thank God for St. Joseph’s School in Fall River, MA !

For the past couple of years I’ve struggled to cut down on screen time and increase my reading. I’ve failed to convince myself that audiobooks are a suitable substitute for reading. There is also the twenty-five thousand thoughts and feelings that I experience every day that intrude into my focus when listening.

There’s something about the proprioceptive sense of touch and feel of a physical book that is relaxing. I realized that I had lost the daily habit of reading a book. So, its back to review the best resource I know to re-establish positive habits- Atomic Habits by James Clear. [Atomic Habits is #16 best selling book on Amazon Best sellers]

What I have been missing is a routine for an hour of reading per day. I have plenty of reminders to read physical books. They are everywhere around me at my house.

I need a new procedure. Using my iPhone’s timer app, I plan to use that to record my reading for the day and then reset it the following day. It takes an average reader 7 hours to read a 250 page book, so I have set a goal of reading an hour a day. The timer allows me to stop and log even brief 10 minute reading sessions.

I plan to also check my stopwatch at dinner time each night and if I am lagging , I pledge to sit and read after dinner until I reach the 60 minute mark.

My AT thru-hiker friend Birdlegs introduced me to the Goodreads app in 2007 and I have used it ever since as my virtual bookshelf. Its where I have on file the 536 books that I have read since then, the 70 “Books That I Want to Read”, and a startling number of books that are classified as “currently reading”.

I’m a huge fan of goal setting, and each January first I set a Goodreads goal of reading a specific number of books. I set my first Challenge in 2011 when I targeted 50 but read only 11 books. I lowered my 2016 Challenge to 25 books, and succeeded. In 2017 I raised my target to 26 books and surprised myself by reading 34. My best year to date was 2021 where I read seven books more than my goal of reading a book a week. This year my goal is 52 books, and as of today I am one book behind schedule with six more books to read by Dec. 31.

Furthermore, friend me on Goodreads so that we can encourage each other in this miracle processing of expanding our world through written language.

Of course, my devious mind is now entertaining the idea of storing extra reading minute at the end of the day into a “ reading bank” that I can draw from if I encounter a day where I fail to meet my 1 hour goal.

I welcome readers of this blog to look me up on Goodreads and check out what I’ve read and am reading.

Giving Thanks 2023

Today’s IChing :

Carl Polich photo

If this were August, a Yellowstone photo like this would certainly be possible. But it’s Thanksgiving and 4 miles east of the Cooke City entrance it looks like this:

Today’s Hiker (me)

The 69 mile Beartooth Highway is closed. Here is an overview of the eastern end of the highway, right after you leave Red Lodge and start to climb to the 10,000′ plateau. I’ve ridden this highway twice on a motorcycle from Maine and once in a car. It is mindblowing.

This is what happens as the winter is over and crews work in April to open up the highway. Its worth clicking to watch what has to be done every year in order to open up America’s “most beautiful drive”-(Charles Kurault 1994).

There are just a few of us celebrating Thanksgiving here in Cooke City. I believe that the harshness of the weather in Cooke City contributes to feelings of appreciation this Thanksgiving Day. It has been snowing off and on for the past two days, and when I woke up this morning, it was blowing 9 miles and hour and gusting up to 18 with a temp of 8 degrees outside my window.

I devoted part of today to writing in my gratitude journal. I have neglected to revisit it since my last entry on July 6 this past summer. I have several prompts that structure this exercise. Today, I listed and appreciated five people who made my life a little happier today (could be friends , family, or even strangers). In addition to my two sons Lincoln and Arlo, my grandson Jesper, and my best friend Edward, I listed my girlfriend Vicky, who has been an increasingly frequent partner on my outdoor adventures asnd in my daily life. Here is a picture of us taken over a weekend camping at my favorite camping and hiking location in Maine at South Branch Pond in Baxter State Park.

I plan to include much more frequent gratitude entries as part of my daily morning routine.

Storm a’ Coming Tonight

My day started out with my usual I Ching reading. I’ve been in the practice of throwing coins for the ‘Ching for the past four years. I keep these little notebooks where I draw out the hexagrams and write out a summary of interpretation after consulting do usual two or three interpretive books. Today’s was markedly on target, given the backdrop of the day.

Today’s I Ching reading

The weather report reflects the nature of at least one external conflict:

Snowstorm tonight

Much of the day was spent indoors, where I read from a book about this general area of the Rockies:

Although my family and I are on a four day vacation from our usual schedule, and in a primo getaway location, we are living with a two year old, who is away from his usual bed, daycare, routine, and home for several days. This translates to periodic “terrible two” meltdowns, which happen when you least expect them!

Lincoln ,Stephanie and I interact in a rescue mode as each one of us spends about a half an hour trying to divert Jesper from distress.

Taking a truck ride to train look for buffaloes on the road or in the wilderness helps. Sometimes it backfires like when he falls asleep in his car seat, and then awakens when we transfer them back into our cabin.

Walking outside helps, although I have to be super careful to maneuver around the ice patches in an effort to avoid slipping and falling on my new shoulder. Unfortunately, there is considerable areas of ground that are covered like this. I was quite fortunate to log 3 miles walking up and down the main road here in town this afternoon, which was a welcome break from the confines of the cabin.

I am also very excited about Strava’s new acquisition of the FATMAP app. Here’s a sample of yesterday’s 3 mild trek here in Cooke City:

Static clip of rotational 3D recording

Here’s a concise Outside Online summary of what mind blowing features the Fatmap app contains. The app is presently free but if you want to use the app offline

Ten Days to Give Thanks in Montana

It’s time for an overdue blog update. I am in Livingston, Montana for an extended Thanksgiving visit, in a small two bedroom short term rental 0.8 miles from my oldest son Lincoln’s house. It is small and their former guest room is now my grandson Jesper’s bedroom. He’s two years old.

Outside it’s 47° with a steady 12 to 16 mile an hour wind that gusts up to 24 miles an hour. Could be a lot worse. I was here once during the first week in October when winter arrived early and close to a foot of snow stayed on the ground in cold temperatures and strong winds that gusted a whole week.

I’m staying on a small rental apartment in the Yellowstone River which flows right through town.

Outside my window are light tan, dead, tall grassy areas around ancient log cabins. I have been watching the deer eat green grass close to the big living room window.

A year ago, on June 12 and 13, rain falling on heavy snowpack high in the mountains caused devastating flooding here in both in Park County, and Yellowstone National Park.

I like walking from this island back and forth to Lincoln’s house The views are astounding.

All the buildings on this small island on the Yellowstone River were partly underwater. This ancient 4 unit motel has been rebuilt. The flood devastated homes, businesses and the economy in several gateway towns.

I’m here for an extended Thanksgiving visit of 10 days. I am also resting and recovering from my third major surgery in the past three years. This time it’s my right shoulder that was been replaced on October 28th.

I am limited to lifting objects no heavier than a full coffee cup for six weeks with my right hand, which has been in a sling, but I have been able to keep up a decent walking schedule.

I walked over 7 miles just out and about here in town yesterday. Its also fun to walk beside the Yellowstone in Sacajawea Park. Here’s yesterday’s pick of Jesper and Lincoln on a short stroll.

The moon came out just before sunset.

I also have been able to ride a stationary bike. That is another story that will definitely get a full blog post soon.

This afternoon, Lincoln is driving my daughter-in-law, Stephanie, Jesper, me, and his dog Dish some 53 miles to Cook city where we will be in a couple of cabins joining his friend Ben for a group Thanksgiving vacation. It should be no problem getting up there, but the weather report indicates that will be getting as much as 16 inches of fresh snow starting Thanksgiving evening.

From the Chamber of Commerce: “Cooke City is one of the entrances to Yellowstone National Park. It is perhaps most famous for the road that connects Cooke City with Red Lodge. Called “the most scenic drive in America”, the Beartooth Pass on U.S. Highway 212 has dramatic switchbacks traversing the spectacular Beartooth Range. Surrounded by national forest, wilderness and Yellowstone National Park, the area is an outdoor recreationist’s dream.”

Consider subscribing to this blog for much more frequent blog posts during the rest of my unique week in Montana.