Can you believe it’s already one down, 11 to go for 2016. It’s frightening how fast time is passing. Must be my (relatively) old age. A few thoughts as we head into February and actually voting (it’s about time!) in the presidential primary season.

Played golf yesterday and felt for the very first time a bit of a sting from the afternoon sun. Saw my first feathery acacia budding. And the mourning dove activity has really ramped up this past week. Lots of cooing and squawking on the rooftops. Spring is truly on the way.

Who’s gonna win the Iowa caucuses? Well, for Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders it’s all about mobilizing first-time caucus-goers to get out there and swamp the Cruz and Clinton folks. I’m telling ya, nothing would surprise me this year. Strap yourselves in; it’s gonna be a wild ride.

Not being a political animal like yours truly is, I trust Tracey’s judgment from her off-hand comments from watching what little of the debates she has to date, and her initial observation about Ted Cruz was that he was insufferably rude by talking long-past the bell over and over again. Seemed very arrogant and not a nice guy. Which is a side to him that has come out over the past week as his campaign desperately sought to hold off Donald Trump’s poll numbers.

That being said, I don’t trust any polls and the news media that wants to focus solely on the horse race and none of the substantive issues that really need to be hashed out in the public arena. The FOX News debate the other night was a joke, with Megyn Kelly, Brett Bair, and Chris Wallace continually trying to bait the candidates into confrontation. Can’t we do better and just have a substantive discussion about issues?

Is too much gym bad for you? Well, I suppose too much of anything isn’t good for you, but in the case of gym I guess it all depends on what you’re doing there and how you structure your workouts:

All this gym nonsense reaches its climax in January, as people resolve to become healthier in the new year. The tendency has been made worse of late by the no-alcohol fad, Dry January. Who thought up that particular incarnation of Orwellian nightmarishness? Agreeable nights are dampened by once-witty pals clutching mineral water and gazing mournfully at a ragged slice of lemon. At least with Lent, there’s a moral purpose to self-denial; but eschewing alcohol in the bleakest month is heaping misery on desolation – then punishing your friends and family with your sanctimony.

We’re just about at the time when all the new folks who showed up right after the New Year as a resolution start drifting away, to be back next year and try all over again. Me? Four times a week seems about the right amount for me – any less, and being the lazy bugger I am I would find myself making excuses not to go. Even if I don’t do a hard or regular workout, I find just being around people working out is good for my mindset. If I don’t feel like weights or machines I can always do time on the stair-master and/or treadmill and some stretching or balance work and still get something out of it. The idea is to just do it! and make it as part of your life.

I don’t think this would happen on any of my Jet Blue flights. But then again, any time you fly these days you have to gird yourself. People are basically nuts.