1. Turns out if you take a month off lifting weights but continue to do things like shovel snow, you don’t lose your muscle strength.

2. I have decided to start doubling up when I make dinners and freeze the extra meal. This way I can build up a “don’t feel like cooking” buffer that also keeps me from ordering a pizza.

3. Despite the two feet of snow in my yard, I really think it’s almost spring. I predict we’ve had our last winter storm.

4. You never know what you’ll see when your desk faces a window. Yesterday I saw a neighbor’s dog get loose and start running around the newly-shoveled driveway with the spirit of an aviator who just found a clear airstrip. Another dog was led astray by this example, and the two of them raced down the drive, then the shoveled path to the deck, up the stairs, across the deck…smack into the giant snow bank at the bottom. The fact that they didn’t see that coming didn’t keep them down. Dogs are full of joy in the moment.

5. Shoveling snow is good for thinking and plotting time. I haz plots to hatch and books to finish.