Today was special: a drive into New Haven to hobnob with my friends and colleagues of the Yale Alumni Magazine over a fine, fine lunch. (I actually retired in mid-2009 as managing editor, but for reasons that continue to delight me, I'm still considered one of the contributing fold.) It was wonderful to be in the Elm City for social reasons, rather than for yet another evaluation by one of my doctors, and after we all departed for the holidays, I really needed to walk for the most basic of reasons... I ate too much and just had to burn off some of those excess calories. My destination was one of my favorite places—the Stewart McKinney National Wildlife Refuge in Old Saybrook. I was a little nervous about walking up and down hills alone, but I managed. One of my finds was this poor White-footed Mouse, which bit the dust for nothing obvious. No marks, no sign of too close an encounter with a predator. Maybe the critter just didn't want to face the winter.