Muttering Hopping One-Legged Racing, 71st Day of Hagwinter, 525 M.E. (Deneb): We're only one week past the solstice. Is it possible that I'm already sensing the days getting longer? I can definitely feel them getting colder - after a week of unusually warm winter temperatures in the 70s, a front moved through this morning with gusty winds and the low tonight is forecast to be around 25°. Things will gradually warm back up as the week progresses, but we're in for a doozy of a chill (by Southern standards), for the next 48 hours of so.

I managed to get my alternate-day walk in today despite the chill, and despite the presence of a football game on television. The winds were chilly but the skies were clear, but I still kept the walk to a relatively short 4.1-mile Madison. Still, it was better than two days ago when I got in zero miles, but I already feel better than yesterday for keeping to my schedule and routine. My preference become my habits, my habits become my routine, my routine becomes ritual, and ritual comes to seem sacred. I felt out-of-sorts until I got outside this afternoon and started walking again.

And I got back home in time to watch that football game.