There is something bondage-like in Chris' adherence to routines, like the way he binds his toes with rope to stretch out his bunions.

Why get up so early? Why not leave the dirty dishes until morning when we're less exhausted after a late night? Why stick so slavishly to routines?

It's not like he doesn't have fun, which I'll get to later, and routine, as I will reveal as the year goes on, certainly has big payoffs.

In Matteo Pericoli's Windows on the World, Karl Ove Knuausgaard, that wonderfully obsessive and productive Norwegian writer, said: "I love repetition. I love doing the same thing at the same time and in the same place, day in and day out. I love it because something happens in repetition: Sooner or later, the heap of sameness, accumulated through all the identical days, starts to glide. That's when the writing begins."

I am not wired for 6 am yoga but this blog is my attempt at a "heap of sameness, accumulated through all the identical days..."

Let the writing begin.