Wednesday, March 20, 2013

A Bereft Triumph

As the painful, unrelenting dance of tetchy robins tussling over the prized, worm-filled dirt plays out under a teasing, thawing sun, I remember it's that time of the new year to look back at the old year, to navel-gaze so deeply so as to invite whatever awed derision or jeering nonplus or, worse, bland indifference may come.

And with that, this:


I guess the "important" take-away "points" here are:  I, for the first time in my long, distinguished career of doing this nonsense, actually hit my stated goals. The number crunching, tracking, and planning took on a fanatical, religious-like importance this year, particularly in the second half after returning from India in June. It's interesting that in around early Fall I felt as good physically as I'd ever felt before (and was playing the best hockey of my life (ed. note: which is still pretty terrible hockey)), but after a sloppy holiday season followed by some ol' timey visitors and the bacchanalia that ensued, followed by a busy work period, followed by a smarch seasonal and possibly existential malaise, I'm basically now in as poor a shape as I've been in in a long while.  Huzzah.  Also, note the existence of the classic inverse or mirror image relationship between the two lines, which we've seen before but perhaps never more beautifully than the stretch from July to December here.  And for what it's worth, the inside/outside drinking ratio was 36.6%/63.4%.  I'm not sure what conclusions should be drawn from that ratio (perhaps that I need to get out more?  Less?), but it is consistent with historic levels.

It's interesting to note that while my average drinks per day was only about 3.1, the standard deviation was actually 3.2, so I wasn't merely having an extra glass of Dolcetto before dessert - I was either having the whole bottle, with a couple of Makers chasers, or tee-totaling.  I think for now I'd prefer the higher standard dev. with  a lower average than the reverse, although I could certainly see changing views on that as I continue to get older.  This year's already off to a very rocky start so who know's where the workout number will end up.  With the baby coming, I'd like to get the drinks to under 20, and I imagine the pre- and post-August splits will be fairly dramatic.

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