Why January 1st?

 I started composing a post (Composting? That sounds suitably rotten.) on January 2nd in the waiting room for an orthopedic doctor when I was twenty-five minutes early for an appointment and had just enjoyed a wonderful interaction outside the building as I was locking my bike. Someone had approached me with, "Do you have studded tires?" He then went on to share that he used to ride mountain bikes at Bear Hole and in the winter would use studs. Alas, a health condition had his doctors proscribe, "No more saddle time!" I asked if he could still venture in the woods hiking, and he beamed, "Yes!" Still, he was jealous of my riding. I thought his outlook and attitude at eighty-five years old next month were great, and I let him know that was inspiring.

Mass General is good with bike racks,

and their insurance plans

will reimburse half a helmet purchase!

It seems the doctor's office was running early as well, so before completing even the first sentence, I was called in, and five minutes before my scheduled appointment, x-rays of my ankle had already been taken. Good news! The surgeon agreed with the sports therapy doctor that correcting my leg issues doesn't dictate surgery and even commented that my right ankle, while not as solid as my uninjured left, has good stability, so yay, it seems physical therapy is working.

But like my arrival and treatment, time is more generally relative, and while riding a day or two later (See, it doesn't matter.), I found myself wondering why the start of a new year comes when it does, rather than something more significant, celestial, like the solstice, which is really close. I finally looked  and found a brief explanation without lots of ads which did mention the solstice as well as other events, and suggested that January First is a sort of compromise.

Compromise! What a concept, maybe if modern humans could learn that one we'd actually get along instead of feeling the need to explode things thousands of miles away. Oh well, dreaming is free, and so is this post about the start of the new year coming on January fifth. Maybe I should resolve to be more punctual, but then, time, and timing, are relative. Happy New Year, whenever you read this.

Sunday, 

I skipped running with friends in shoe studs, 

and needing to depart home in darkness, 

and falling snow, 

hiking later from my house instead.