What started as a burn for a pile of leaves in the afternoon would transform into the welcoming guard against the night. It went from merely a chore to...well, more chores for fuel: using a handsaw to remove more trunk from the zombie tree in my yard, sawing parts of my backdoor deck off, and collecting all sorts of branches that have fallen so far this year...however...

...once the fire was set for the hours ahead, I pulled out the chairs and felt at peace as the long shadows danced with the night.
Underneath a cloudy shroud with darkness all around us, I was with my son as we heard the coyotes erupt into their nightly cascade of howls followed by an abrupt stop. I'd have to think it's a little unnerving for that crazy cat in the yard, as it sauntered by me, purring in its contempt while smirking at my recent failures to write it off.

Once the fire fell into embers, I thought I would just skip dinner entirely. In my last post, I mentioned my hunger signals practice, and I didn't feel anything despite my last meal at 9:30 AM. I thought I was good for the rest of the day. But, just under an hour after the fire and BOOM—I gotta eat some meat! After my typical 1 lb of ground beef and 3 eggs, I did not want to finish the morsels.

I put in around 90 minutes this morning as it was the first time I've trained since picking up the right lat injury. It's still there in the background, but I haven't made any outbursts of pain in days. I feel it most when I lift a weight over my ahead, or oddly enough, to my surprise this morning, I can produce a ripple of pain by throwing a LEFT uppercut from a southpaw stance.

Of course, I don't work out to lose weight. Come to think of it, I GAIN weight when I work out—we want that, right? I just see my workouts as a place to have fun as I develop my skillsets and improve my cardio.