Judy and I both use iPhones.  We have an app that tracks our steps, distance and floors climbed.  It serves a supportive role in encouraging our physical activity. In practice, we have noticed some idiosyncrasies.  Judy’s stride is shorter, for example, so she takes more steps to cover the same distance.  Distances vary at least in part because our paths are not identical, but sometimes the differences seem more whimsical.  As for stairs, we can sometimes proceed hand in hand up and down exactly the same routes with significantly different tracking results.  One day recently she got credit for six flights while I received credit for only one. (Not fair!)

Nonetheless we are both increasingly fascinated with the data.   We grow more attracted to tracking and comparing our progress.  We aspire to average a 10,000 steps per day model, but have room to improve (although one day recently I did cover more than 14,000 steps, or a bit more than eight miles).  My current average is about 8,000 steps per day.

In a way, the eccentricities of the app parallel our own irregular behavior patterns.  As the I Ching says so often, “no blame.”

The coast of Ireland is mountainous, the interior comprises lowlands.  A traditional word of advice (according to our group leader Stephen) regarding the weather: look out when you get up in the morning. If you can see the mountains, it’s going to rain; if you can’t see the mountains, it’s raining already. 😜

We arrived in Belfast May 2 on a rainy evening, exhausted from the nonstop flight from SFO to Heathrow followed by a crowded flight from Heathrow to Belfast.  We napped, ate at the hotel restaurant (for me a bland fish pie with garlicky haricots verts), tried to set up charging apparatus for our phones, pads and toothbrushes — and then we crashed.  When we awoke it was still raining, but it was the morning of a new day.  Breakfast included fried bread and basted eggs (not “over”), breakfast meats and assorted fruit.

We set out walking from the hotel, (Jury’s Inn) mostly to simply get things moving again.  We walked a couple of miles in the neighborhood (according to the activity monitors in our phones) before stopping at a Starbucks near the hotel.  Along the way we stopped to appreciate a public sculpture of two women advocating equal rights and pay.  My first efforts to insert a photo here failed; I’ll add it later if I can.