Yesterday I had to call Triwest healthcare (the administrator for military healthcare) about a referral. At the end of the call the young man thanked me for my military service. I know he was probably reading from a script, but it caught me off guard. It made me feel good in a visceral way. Maybe there's value in the act of saying something nice, even if you may not be sincere. This could be that "constructive hypocrisy" that' I've heard about.

My second entry of the year!

My wife and I often discuss moving to Florida, or someplace less frosty as winter tightens its grip. Whenever this happens I feel premature nostalgia for winter. There's something dignified and pure about moving through winter in the midwest. The snow, the cold, the long dark nights, and the eventual warming and greening we know is coming.

Living in Panama for three years gave me an appreciation for weather that changes. Maybe that's my point, if I have one. Life is most engaging when it changes, for good or for bad.