Keep moving
On December 13th actor and TV star Dick Van Dike celebrated his 100th birthday. He is still very active and at 99 was still acting.
When asked what’s the secret, his reply was “keep moving.” As Dick grew older he made a lot of changes in his life, giving up alcohol and smoking and adopting exercise as his way to live as he aged.
Getting old doesn’t have to mean just sitting around watching TV or constantly checking political events online. Sixty percent of the adult population is now overweight and 42% are obese, suggesting that something is wrong with our current lifestyle.
Winter is a tough season to get out and so many times it’s easy to say it’s too cold or windy or whatever than to go for a walk.
Last Saturday when the temperature soared to 65 degrees and the sun was shining, many took advantage of the day, including me with a 10-mile bike ride on the Sheepskin and Rotary trails. In addition to the exercise I was treated to a beautiful clump of spring purple crocus flowers on the Rotary walk.
Somehow it just puts you in a good spirit seeing Mother Nature show her colors. Today, Tuesday, March 3 was on the cloudy side, however temperatures warmed into the 50s and I decided to check on the newly paved trail at Dunlap Creek. It’s almost finished and is a welcome Gem in Fayette County. Just needs some finishing touches but even now it is very walkable.
Mild weather has returned and along with it some much needed rain. The winter months of December, January and February saw a shortfall of over 5 inches of precipitation continuing a longer term dry spell and drought that persisted through the summer and fall.
Temperatures averaged 3 degrees below normal and our coldest was 10 below zero. Many may forget that we saw high temperatures reach into the 60s in all three months. The snows that visited were hard to get rid of because of the visit from the Polar Vortex that has now returned to the Arctic. This week saw daily temperatures in Fairbanks, Alasak of -46, -40 and -33. Even daytime highs did not get to zero.
Let’s hope the Vortex stays where it belongs and we get to enjoy some additional mild weather. We should see a few 70s this weekend and the beginning of the week then a bit cooler. Below-zero temperatures in our area are highly unlikely in March and have never been observed after the 16th of the month.
Looking forward to seeing you out walking and don’t forget there are a number of exercise facilities and our local YMCA is another gem to help keep us moving, especially on any of those days where the weather is a bit cool or damp.