Tuesday, August 07, 2018

Numbers I've been thinking about

8000
That's the average number of miles I drive in a year, over the past four years. The average American drives about 13,000. I'm actually a bit proud of this - all that cycling is paying off.

8
The average number of books I've read per month in 2018. That's two per week! In the last year, my reading has really picked up since I've rediscovered ebooks (and the newly improved collection at my library). I still read a fair number of actual paper books, but the convenience of checking out books remotely combined with the ease of holding a book displayed on a phone has made a big difference. I regularly read while walking the dog, and even occasionally read while cooking. I was also surprised to find that for every two books I read, I start one and never finish it (these are not counted in the statistics). I would not have guessed that I was latter number, which means either that I am becoming more choosy or less willing to plow through things I dislike.

42
The answer to life, the universe, and everything, of course. Also, the number of dollars I'd need to pay each week to have my lawn mowed. This comes to mind, not infrequently, as I push my little electric mower through the tall grass in the overly humid DC summer heat. I suspect my neighbors think I'm a bit crazy. Some of them hire a mowing service, and the rest have big gas-powered mowers. And it is definitely a man's job - I've never seen another woman in my neighborhood mowing. Currently I am too frugal to hire someone, especially at those outlandish rates, even though this is far and away my most hated chore. But if I inherit millions of dollars from my unknown great aunt, a lawn service is the first thing I'll purchase.

3 comments:

de-I said...

I wish I could read that many books in a week. I am a very slow reader and it takes me a long time to get through a book. Of course I neither read while walking or cooking as I have enough trouble not hurting myself in either activity without reading. AND I drive less than 6000 miles a year and my feet have never seen a bike pedal since teenager times. Of course the fact that I travel for some 4 months out of the year might influence the number.

adventures and misadventures abroad said...

I tend to read in spurts. I read a lot more when I travel - especially on the plane. I read 3-4 books this last week.
We don't have a lawn for exactly the reasons you mention. But I do have a lot of yard work. And we do hire out a lot of it.
I usually don't put on that many miles on my car - except when we do a road trip. We plan to do one this fall, but not sure how far we will go. Somewhere along the southern coast of the US.

alexis said...

well not to boast but I'm pretty sure I put you all to shame on the nr of miles driven. LOL. I fail miserably on the reading front: if I read 2-3 books a year it's a triumph, but the last two years I've tended to read extremely long, dense non-fiction books, which doesn't help my stats.