Summertime, June 2019 Edition

In my “One Awesome Summer” post, I talked about my goals for the summer. It’s a big list, and I’ll likely not do everything on it … but I can try. The point of this post is to take a look at those goals and see where I am. As I mentioned back in January, reflection has been a challenge for me so I’m trying to be a bit more purposeful about it this summer.

Summer Reading List 2019: Thanks to vacation, June was a productive month. I read six books on my summer reading list: Tiamat’s Wrath, Consuming Fire, Triumphant, The Goal, The Light Brigade, The Past Through Tomorrow, which means I’ve read 6 of 19 books. I’m currently listening to The Name of the Wind and reading A Bad Deal for the Whole Galaxy.

Bring Back Monster Week: I’m making progress. I’ve got a bunch of half-written reviews to finish up, and I binge watched Season 1 of Stranger Things. This may end up being an August thing; we’ll see how July goes.

Complete Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: I’m stuck in the Shadow Temple. Damn it.

Go to the Jersey Shore: We had a plan to go to the Jersey Shore in mid-June for my son’s birthday. When the day came, it was 69 degrees in the sun with winds gusting to 20-30 miles an hour. In other words, not great beach weather. It may be difficult to squeeze a beach day into July, but hopefully, we can get there in August.

Backpacking: I’ve got a trip scheduled for mid-July. And I’ve got maps! Now I just need to plan out our route.

Play disc golf: I found my favorite discs. I still haven’t actually managed to play a game, but there’s plenty of summer left.

Run five kilometers: I finished by 5K training routine and – for the first time ever — I brought my running sneakers on vacation and actually went running! I’m getting a feel for what my weekly routine should look like – I’m thinking 2-3 mile runs around three times away. When is started this, I told myself I didn’t really need to run anything longer than a 5K, but I’m tempted to try for five miles. We’ll see how it goes.

Swim a mile: My goal is a swimming mile (1650 yards). I made it to 1,000 yards before going on vacation. I’d intended to swim on vacation as well, but Lake Champlain was 65 degrees, which is a tad too cold for me. I’ve got a month before scout camp; just like running I need to make sure I stick to a routine.

Walk 7 miles a day: My goal is 7 miles a day; in June my daily average was  5.2. That’s due in large part to rainy weather and vacation; I’ll happily walk to work in the rain, but I can’t arrive completely drenched … and we had a lot of drenching days.

Get to 200 lbs.: I’m still at the 213-215 range, which – given vacation – isn’t too bad.

Bonus Rounds

Vacation! My family and I went on our annual vacation to Lake Champlain in June. We’ve been doing this for the last 11 years or so, ever since friends of ours bought a cabin on Butler Island (one of the small islands on the lake). It’s an awesome opportunity to unplug, hang out with our combined families, and read a ton of books. As has been the case for the last few years, I also ran a Dungeons & Dragons game for NeutronLad and his like-aged friends. This time around, we finished the classic Forge of Fury module that we began during our last summer vacation.

College Tours: As part of our trek north, StarGirl and I went to Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont, and then visited the honors college at the University of Vermont. StarGirl is going to be a high school junior in the fall and has already gone on a number of tours (either with my wife and I, or through school). She’s starting to get a sense for the kind of school she’d like to go to, but obviously, she’s got plenty of time to figure that out.

New Mapping Notebook: While exploring downtown Burlington I found an awesome new notebook for role-playing game mapping. It’s a LEUCHTTURM1917, which is what I use for my bullet journal, but it’s supersized to the A5 format. It’s perfect for super-sized layouts, such as the new map of the gnomish town of Neversleep that I’m working on.

Featured Image

Lake Champlain, as viewed from Butler Island, VT. Credit: Ken Newquist.

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