I yam what I yam and that's all what I yam. Popeye the Sailor

 (daily ex., morning dog walk 1.3 slow miles, pm slow jog 5.2 miles)

“I base most of my fashion taste on what doesn't itch.” ― Gilda Radner

 (daily ex., morning dog walk 0.7 mi, pm jog 2.3 mi)

“Why was she dancing? No reason. Just alive, I guess.” ― George Saunders, Tenth of December

 (daily ex., morning dog walk 1.5 miles, pm slow jog 3.5 mi, walk 1.1 miles)

“Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle.” ― Lewis Carroll , Alice in Wonderland

 (daily ex., morning slow dog walk 1.4 miles, pm streak saver jog 1.1 mi, walk 4 miles)

If every day is a gift, then today was socks.

 Luckily, I love socks.

(daily ex., morning walks 3.5 miles, pm slow jog 3.1 mi)

“What do you hang on the walls of your mind?” — Eve Arnold

 (daily ex., 30 min of shoveling snow, 0.5 mi dog walk, pm slow jog-walk 2.5 miles)

“Patience is also a form of action.” — Auguste Rodin, French sculptor

 (daily ex., very slow morning dog walk 1.5 miles, pm jog-walk 5 miles) 

“People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” – Isaac Asimov

 (daily ex., morning dog walk 1.2 mi, pm streaksaver jog 1.3 miles, basically a rest day)

“I don’t like the word retirement,” she said. “I like to say a departure from the tour, or just stepping back, or switching gears, or, like, evolving.” Carissa Moore

 (daily ex. update, 2 dog walks = 1.9 miles, pm slow jog 3.1 mi, with 1.2 mi cooldown walk)

"What if your markers of success were how well you slept at night. How many books you read. How easily you laughed. How much time you spent storytelling, feeling warm in the arms and homes of people you adore." - Unknown

 “The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours.”

Alan Bennett

(daily ex., 2 dog walks 2.4 miles, pm jog 3.2 mi with 1 mi cooldown walk)

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” ― George Orwell, 1984

 and that is why they are banning books.

(daily ex., morning dog walk 1.3 miles, pm slow jog-walk 5.3 miles)

“I think having land and not ruining it is the most beautiful art that anybody could ever want.” ― Andy Warhol

 (daily ex., morning walks 3.5 miles, pm slow jog 3 miles) 

“You can’t turn back the clock. But you can wind it up again.” — Bonnie Prudden

 (daily ex., morning dog walk 1.2 miles, pm slow jog-walk 5 miles)

/ William Shakespeare / . "What a terrible era in which idiots govern the blind."

 (daily ex., morning slow dog walk 1.5 miles, pm streaksaver 2.6 miles run/jogged to get in some more steps)

Everybody knows everybody is dying; that's why people are as good as they are. Henry Wiggen, Bang the Drum Slowly

 

(daily ex., morning dog walk 1.4 miles, pm slow jog/walk 4.1 miles. Gotta get those steps in)

Isaac Asimov / . "The advance of genetic engineering makes it quite conceivable that we will begin to design our own evolutionary progress."

 (daily ex., 30 min. scooping snow, 2 one mile dog walks, pm jog 4 miles with 0.5 cooldown walk)

“The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.

 

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

― Martin Luther King Jr.

“If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”

― Martin Luther King Jr.

“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way”

― Martin Luther King Jr.

Always inspiring, every single year.

Word of the day:  Xenodochial, being friendly to strangers. (antonym, xenophobia, fear or dislike of anything foreign or strange)

(daily ex. update, snowing and even colder, no dog walk. evening jog 2.6 mi, walk 5 mi to get the steps in) 

“Life is not like formula fiction. The villain has a heart, and the hero has great flaws.” — Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

 (daily ex., morning dog walk 0.7 miles, still very cold, pm slow jog 2.5 miles)

Life is like arriving late for a movie, having to figure out what was going on without bothering everybody with a lot of questions, and then being unexpectedly called away before you find out how it ends. ~Joseph Campbell

 (daily ex. , morning dog walk 0.7 miles, 30 min of snow, pm 4 mi slow jog, 2 mi cooldown walk.  Very cold)

“A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.” – Jean de La Fontaine

 This quote reminds me of the short story, "The Appointment in Samarra" by Maugham.

https://www.k-state.edu/english/baker/english320/Maugham-AS.htm

I don''t agree, though, that destiny is all and is inevitable.  People do have will.

(daily ex. morning dog walk 1.4 mi, pm slow streak saver  jog 2.2 miles.  The arctic cold is arriving overnight tonight)

 

“If you choose not to find joy in the snow, you will have less joy in your life, but still the same amount of snow.” -Unknown

 I have to remind of myself of this annually.

(daily ex., morning dog walk 1.5 miles, pm slow jog 3 miles, 2.5 miles warm up and cool down. Still trying to get steps in)

“May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house.” ― George Carlin

 (daily ex., morning dog walk 1.6 miles, very windy chilly day, pm slow jog 2.5 miles with 3 miles of warmup and cooldown walking)

 I recognized winter.

I saw it coming , and I looked it in the eye.

I greeted it and let it in.

I had some tricks up my sleeve, you see.

I've learned them the hard way.

When I started feeling the drag of winter, I began to treat myself like a favored child: with kindness and love.

I assumed my needs were reasonable and that my feelings were signals of something important.

I kept myself well fed and made sure I was getting enough sleep.

I took myself for walks in the fresh air and spent time doing things that soothed me.

I asked myself: What is this winter all about? I asked myself: What change is coming?”

~ Katherine May ~

Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

(daily ex., morning dog walk 1.6 miles, pm 2.2 mi slow jog, 3 mi warm up and cool down walk, knee still bothering)

At the end of the game, the king and the pawn go back in the same box....Italian Proverb

 (daily ex., 45 min of shoveling snow, 0.7 mi dog walk, 1.1 mi streak saver jog)

“What makes the desert beautiful,' said the little prince, 'is that somewhere it hides a well...” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

 It's been over 50 years since I first read "The Little Prince." What a wonderful book.

(daily ex.morning dog walk 1.6 miles, pm slow jog 1.1 mi, with 2 mi warmup walk and 2 mi cooldown walk.  I'm still rehabbing a sore knee)

“Follow your heart but take your brain with you.” ― Alfred Adler

 (daily ex. update, 3 walks =4.5 miles,pm slow jog 2 miles, rt knee a little better)

“Everyone thinks women should be thrilled when we get crumbs, and I want women to have the cake, the icing, and the cherry on top, too.” —BILLIE JEAN KING”

 "Albert Einstein’s first wife Mileva (Mitza) Marić was also a brilliant physicist. They met at the Polytechnic Institute of Zurich, where she had fought for special permissions to attend and where she received higher marks than Albert. Mitza put in as much if not more work on their theories but wasn’t credited because Albert told her their works wouldn’t get published with a woman’s name on them.

Many of his lecture notes are in Mitza’s handwriting, and Albert was once heard at a party saying, “I need my wife, she helps solve all of my mathematical problems.” 80% of Einstein’s famous works were published during this marriage, referred to as his “magic years.” Those magic years ended abruptly after they divorced due to his infidelity and abandonment."

Happy Women’s History Month to the real genius of the Einstein family, Mileva Marić

(daily ex. update, morning slow dog walk 2.6 miles, pm jog 1.5 miles, cooldown walk 2.5 miles, rt knee still bothering)

The birds, they sang at the break of day. ‘Begin again,’ I heard them say… ~ Leonard Cohen

 (daily ex., morning slow dog walk 2.7 miles,  pm slow jog 1.2 miles followed by 3.3 mi walk, right knee still tweaked)

I said to myself, "Self." (and I knew it was me, cause I recognized my voice, and I was wearing my underwear) "Today is going to be a good day !

 (daily ex. update, 3 walks = 4.6 miles, pm slow jog 2.5 miles, my knee is still sore but a little better)

Do something this year that would have gotten you burned at the stake 400 years ago.

 (daily ex., 2 dog walks 2.3 miles, pm slow jog 2 miles, knee pain, cool down walk 2.2 miles)

"I gotta stay in shape

Just in case things go further south and I have to run messages for the resistance.

Nobody will suspect a little old lady."

                 Alison Bechdel, The Secret to Superhuman Strength 

This will be my mantra for 2024.

I have been considering New Year Resolutions.  They turned out to be identical to last year's.  I've gotten lax and just need to get back on track.

(daily ex., 2  very slow dog walks=2 miles, pm jog 3.1 miles, cool down walk 1.1 mi)