Eric Tapley

Since early this year I’ve been walking almost every day to ensure I get some exercise. It’s a good low-key way for me to work my way back to health. My long-term plan, once I’ve rebuilt my strength and lost some weight, is to then get back to hiking, camping, cycling and running.

In addition to the health benefits I’ve found walking to be a great way to explore a new city or town, a good way to get out of a bad mood (especially if something nasty goes on at work), or a way to get out of my regular environment and find a way to think through a problem in a different way. One of my fondest memories is exploring San Francisco a few years ago when I visited by walking around for 8 hours a day.

For me, at least, exercise without measurement makes it difficut to gague progress and keep to a routine. So for the past few months I was using the Walking Advantage Sportline 340 pedometer which I wore all day long and used to track every step I took. I really liked it - small, simple, accurate, and inexpensive. It was not very durable, however, so recently while getting out of the car I slid against my hip and in the process crushed face and clip on the 340.

Kate was nice enough to pick up a more robust replacement for me, the 345 model. It’s a bigger model with a much stronger clip so I don’t think I’ll break this one. It also counts calories once you’ve input your weight, which will be nice since I’m trying to get back in shape and lose some weight.

I’m still looking for a good way to track and report on my daily progress. I’m aiming for a minimum of 10,000 steps per day with a goal of at least 12,000 per day. I’m going to look to see if there’s a Nike+iPod-like system for walkers. (If you know of one, let me know.)

In the meantime I’m back at it now that my poison ivy is healing. I’ll let you know how my progress goes.

And today? 11,442 steps so far.

Walking Advantage Sportline 340		Walking Advantage Sportline 345

So, to help combat my second attack of poison ivy this summer I’m back on Prednisone (which I also took for Ulcerative Colitis… it’s apparently my body’s drug of choice). And it drives me crazy. Whenever I use this stuff I’m up until all hours of the night and just can’t sleep. When I try to nap during the day I only get fits here and there, so never feel rested. And if I try to sleep in… well, I just can’t sleep in. I try and wake up with the sun anyway.

All of this leaves me in a bit of a nasty place, really, quite overtired and feeling a little stretched. It’s almost like the world is a little out of phase or pinched or otherwise not quite right. Certainly this isn’t the time to be driving or operating heavy machinery, but it’s not a good time to be doing anything, really.

So, here I am, blogging about this at 3am instead of sleeping like any responsible parent should. Ugh.

What keeps you up at night?

So, I’ve just finished working with Kate to tweak a WordPress theme and make a blog for Baby Sam. We’re going to use this as a place to post stories about him, add photos, and in general keep friends and family up to date on everything going on in the little guy’s world.

Check it out: Sam Tapley and, if you could, tell us what you think.

Here’s some stuff I put up over the past few years that doesn’t really fit anywhere, but might still be of interest to a very limited set of friends and family.

A ‘birthday site’ for Tessa at age five.

The wedding invitation site for Kate and I.

A varied selection of photos I’ve posted as galleries over the last few years.

Purgatory Chasm is a great little ravine near Worcester. I love the unique geology of this space and try to hike there at least once a year. This gallery contains some shots of a visit I made last fall.

2004-2005 New Year’s Party Every year since 1994 I’ve hosted a New Year’s party, usually with some friends from NMH (Seth Schoen and Colin Fredericks have been to just about every party). We’ll be doing it again this year, too!

2004 Christmas Party A great get-together with a bunch of people from ENC. This was our last Christmas at the house in Hopedale.

2005 Easter Weekend

2005 Flower Show Kate and her grandmother had a great time attending a flower show a few years back. Here’s what they enjoyed.

Emily and Jeremie Vignault’s Wedding Our friends Emily and Jeremie were married in upstate New York, and we were there to capture a few moments on film.

Camping at Mt. Monadanock. In the summer of 2000 we gathered up some friends and spent time hiking and camping at Mt. Monadanock, a great little mountain in my hometown of Jaffrey, NH. This was our invitation site.

Over the past six months I’ve primarily used my old site (eTapley.com) as a place for photo galleries, most of them of baby Sam. I’m linking to those here to maintain the galleries for now, but plan to migrate these to a real gallery system soon.

Selected galleries:
Birth photos.
Sam’s first week.
Sam’s second and third weeks.
Fourth week shots.
Sam, month two.
Assorted photos, months two through five.

Any suggestions on what to use? I’m thinking about Gallery2 with the WordPress plug-in, but I don’t have experience with this and would appreciate feedback from those really using this setup.

Thanks.

After years of editing a series of flat files over at eTapley.com I’ve finally made the move to using blog software. I’ve selected WordPress and will be working over the next few weeks to learn the ins and outs of this, migrate old static posts from eTapley to this dynamic system, and generally catch up to where the world of 2006 is.

Why the wait?

I was too busy doing other things to get my act together. Not a good excuse (and, thankfully, an excuse no more).