By The Numbers

As I began to think about my final post to this blog while on Sabbatical, I realized that summary and closure would really be impossible.  So I thought I would just leave with some numbers.

My sabbatical lasted 92 days.  Of that, I spent 63 nights out of the safe comfort of my bed.

The generous grant from the Lilly Endowment Grant was for $50,000.  $35,000 paid for the expenses of myself and my family (which when added to the money I had already budgeted proved just $40 less than I actually spent).  The church's portion of $15,000 provided an all-star level interim in Charles Bugg (thank you so much Chuck!).  Three tremendous opportunities were provided for the members of Faith to explore storytelling through a variety of media.  And to the best of my knowledge, we won't have any money to return the kind folks at Lilly (Thank you so much and sorry!).

According to the Bing Distance calculator, I travelled more than 18,200 miles this summer.  That works out to about 200 miles a day and $2 a mile if your counting.

During that time, I've posted 101 entries on my blog here--counting this one.  I found one handy application that tracked visits to bobfoxstories@blogspot.com.  Over the course of my absence there were nearly 2500 hits and 4800 page views (Thanks Mom!).  It constantly humbled and reminded me that there really were a lot of people following along.

While this story of my life has reached its end, other stories are just beginning.  The experiences of this summer will provide a background and enriching for everything that follows.

So if we are going by the numbers, let me leave with one--one big thank you to everyone who made this possible and everyone reading this.