It's only new thing number 2, and I can already hear your skepticism:

"A winter walk? That's nothing new."

Maybe not for you. But it's not something I do very often...if ever.

But I did it on New Year's Day. And I didn't even intend it to be a new item in the list. But it was such a pleasant experience that it ended up becoming New Thing #2.

As you can see, the walk was kind of picturesque.

Some snow on the ground, but not enough that I couldn't walk on pavement most of the time.

It was the morning of New Year's Day, so the streets were quiet. There are no cars in this picture, and that pretty well illustrates the entirety of my walk.

I wanted to walk partly because I've been on an exercise break over the holidays and it was time to do something active, but also because it was such a nice day. Had it been a few degrees colder I'm sure it would have been a much different experience - but as it was, I actually broke a sweat on the way home.

I walked the route that I usually run, and that's what made this such a unique experience. In the spring and summer if I have a half-hour of free time I'll jog this route (or maybe half of it, stop for ice cream, and walk back) and won't think twice about it. I'll even bring my youngest in a stroller so I'm not leaving my wife with three kids back home.

But in the winter, this hardly ever happens. To be honest, the biggest reason is that usually everything is so salted and sanded that I feel like I'm destroying my shoes when I walk in the street. And I'm always afraid I'll slip on the ice if I run in the slushy, icy winter streets. But as I walked and the sun beat down Tuesday morning, I considered running.

So even though my winter walk wasn't intended to be New Thing #2, it may even result in another new thing - stay tuned to see if a winter jog ends up on the list.