Pai Mei would have been impressed...

My dad, not so much.

Sunday I went to the folks for some outdoor manual labor. (read: Heavy lifting) I do this out of support and commitment of their support and commitment to me all these years, and also it keeps them from hurting their bodies. (Dad hasn’t seem to figure that part out. The martyr.) With daddy’s recent trip to the hospital- I 86’ed him from attempting any further manual labor for the remainder of the summer.

One of the suck-ass tasks he attempted (And probably the one that floored him) was the removal of a tree stump. This stump has been firmly rooted in the back yard since I helped trim it down back in ’93. (Projects move verrry slowly for the P family.) So there it has remained, a 3.5 ft tall, 24 in circumference bitch, just taking up yard space.

Last time I was over, I spent a goodly hour trying to use a pick ax and a weighted pry bar to loose it from its moorings. This time, I attempted a different approach: I used up all my frustration from a heinously stressful week, and I started kicking it. (Hey, Napoleon!) Front kicks of course, since a round kick would have meant connecting with my shin (Causing more harm than good- "Winner, Tree!!!") or a side kick: which is ultimatlely a more powerful kick- it would have sent a jarring shock up my heel to an already tender "post-accident" spine. So yeah. I kicked the hell out of it.

"Mad Dog!!! What the hell are you doing!????!!!" (When my dad finally came outside to "supervise")

I was covered head to toe in sweat, and after grabbing & shaking the stump to show him how loose it was (It was pretty much like a loose tooth by this point. But there was this taproot that just didn’t seem to want to give.) He backed the truck in to winch the sumbitch out. If the picture turns out, there is going to be a hilarious photo of me making like I pulled it out with the chain, and nothing more. Ahhh testosterone. 4 Ibuprofen later, I was actually able to get out of bed today and type this ridiculous machismo blog. I’m just amazed that the "old school" crap still works.

What's my point? I’m seeing Star Wars this Wednesday. Out of 6 movies, this’ll be the 5th Midnight showing baby!!!! More on that, later…