Search This Blog


Friday, October 21, 2011

Numbers and Stats

Things sometimes amaze me.  Numbers usually are not one of them.  As a kid in grade school, I found that one of the three "Rs" tortured me...'rithmatic.  I spent many hours suffering through mental anguish trying to get those multiplication tables to stay in my brain.  Very frustrating when I had perfectly good fingers and toes to count on.

Even more maddening was that to use a calculator was considered almost sinful.  The common explanation was what would you do if you didn't have access to a calculator, or that the batteries were dead in it?  As long as I was careful around power equipment, knives and saws, the fingers and toes would work just fine.

High school algebra and geometry was even worse.  My freshman year I had to do Algebra I over in summer school to squeak by to get a passing grade.  As a senior, I was in Algebra II, required to pass to graduate.  I had grades so low I had to be careful not to trip over them when I walked.  A miracle occurred for me, if your overall grade point average of all your courses was at a certain level, you didn't have to take a final exam.

Since I aced all my other courses, history, auto shop, English, gym, study hall and lunch, I lucked out and passed Algebra II.  It was a great day to get that diploma (phew!).

Our life getting ready to travel fulltime in our Journey is getting bombarded with numbers.  Budgets, miles per gallon, CCC.  Even trying to sell our humble abode is stacked full of numbers, and stats.

Since we put out house up for sale last June, we've had over 30 showings to potential buyers, 9 of which have been with our new realtor, Mike.  He said statistically, he has a listing on the market and average of 28 days before he gets a sale, he averages 7 showings of that house to get a sale.  He has a good track record of 72 homes sold this year.  Statistically, we should have sold our house at least three times already.   With 9 showings already and our house listed with him 21 days this Saturday, we should be seeing an offer soon.  If you can believe statistics.

Aren't you impressed with how well I threw all those numbers and stats out there?  Let me pause here a minute to put my shoes and socks back on.

Even more numerically incredible to Marti and me is that this is our 401st blog post.  We have 94 followers and have had over 61,000 views and are nearing 3000 comments.  It is just amazing that so many of you tune in to our written ramblings to see what we're up to and what trouble we'll be getting ourselves into next on our path to get on the road fulltime.


We thank each and every one of your for your interest in our journey to start our journey in our Journey.  It's been a tremendous encouragement and keeps us focused on the prize.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

14 comments:

  1. Oh we must have shared the same brain! I struggled with math and passed what was need to get my diploma. I also played hockey and expected to get a scholarship.

    Long story short, injuries insured that wouldn't happen so I had to use my brain, which I did my last year of High School and made it.

    Ahhh to go back and do it all over again.... I wouldn't change a thing! :)

    Erik

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sure hope this is the weekend that you get an offer on the house! Good luck.

    Kevin and Ruth
    www.travelwithkevinandruth.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. Keep reaching, one day you will catch that golden ring.

    ReplyDelete
  4. How funny! I've always said selling a house was a numbers game. You've definitely proved it. Now the problem is figuring out what the number is. Numbers and stats were my thing -- originally a math major. Now I'd rather play around with weather and maps, restaurants and campgrounds. See how things change.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Now I know why my house sold in one week! I was a math teacher. :) Must of been some of that non-Euclidean Geometry in the air.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Did great in Algebra, terrible in Geometry, majored in math got to theoretical and said "what?" switched to English. LOL

    But I love stats. And those are some great ones you've got there. Where did you find the total number of comments.

    Great minds think alike....I posted yesterday about how grateful I was for the comments from followers. But I didn't have any stats to shock me like yours do.

    To answer the question you posed in your comment on my blog: We'll be in C'ville 68 days 17 hours 37 minutes and 50 seconds to be exact! How's that for some stats????? :-))))))))))

    ReplyDelete
  7. I am with you, I almost did not graduate from New York Maritime because of calculus. What a stupid subject!

    I guess poetic justice is that my youngest has a master in mathematics, and currently working on her doctorate in some kind of stats. I could not even read her books:(

    ReplyDelete
  8. No Paul and Marti... Thank you for writing the blog.

    We look forward to your wonderful wit, your unique perspective on things and your terrific RV tips and maintenance lessons.

    Now lets get that house sold so we can follow your travels!!!!

    Bill and I were both math and computer majors ;o)) We know that numbers can be manipulated to present most any picture you want. For us right now...the number we are looking for is ONE!!

    The ONE buyer that wants our house:o)))

    ReplyDelete
  9. LOL - I hated math too..and I ended up majoring in accounting!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Math? I had trouble with 2 + 2. I'm just plain lucky I got through high school and graduated. Love your blog so keep on bloggin'.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Let's see. . . how many times did you use the word "journey" in that last paragraph? 1+1+1=3 How's that for some math wizardry? ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  12. maybe this weekend the numbers will come up!!..or at least an offer!..
    Now I have been reading your blog for sometime and tonight was the first time I noticed a face in the windshield on your header photo?..how could I have missed that!!??..I really should be more observant!!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I'm with ya on all that rithmetic stuff. I once got 8 out of 100 on a high school math exam paper and I recall getting that 8 pointer off my Buddy's paper. Had enough trouble with simple numbers but when it came to algebra it all looked like Chinese to me and I could never nor did I ever have an interest in learning anything about it. It was all the math oriented subjects in high school that led to my early drop out!! My hat's off to all you folks who managed to slug your way through all that miserable math sludge.......

    ReplyDelete
  14. We have enjoyed every step of the way reading it on your blog. I often read your posts aloud to Steveio. Chomping at the bit to be in your shoes soon!

    ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
    Karen and Steve
    (Our Blog) RVing: Small House... BIG Backyard
    http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete