Bluster led the first days of an albescent December. By Christmas, an Alaskan shunt of wind and air helped lead warm, not cold, air into the Eastern United States. January was inordinately warm, resembling March more than the middle of winter. As if following the Gregorian calendar, temperatures have fallen with the arrival of February — and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has noted the possibility for a cooling trend along the Eastern Seaboard. I will admit, for a man who prefers cold, wet and white, that these mild five weeks were as sparing of things manmade as those sired in creation — like the heart. Now winter may return in full, and we shall adjust, but as someone dear recently reminded me, often what shifts in regards to normalcy are our expectations of it.