Winter in 2011 starts with some amount of rude adjustment and great sorrow on a national level. A shooting in Arizona, a little girl is dead and now a household word, images of a flood in Australia prompt a higher than average number of questions from casual acquaintances at the Y, is the flooding affecting Steve and your property over there? And "Benign" was a word I welcomed today, and I realize I don't blog more than once or twice a year. Because its enough just to look out at the sky and snow falling gently and just feel like getting on with it, another day in the north.