Finding Forestry: Tuesday Open Thread

So I don’t think we had the term “heavy work” when I was growing up. If it did exist, it hadn’t penetrated the circle of suburban parenting in which I was raised.

Which is a shame, because as a quietly ADHD child, I think it would have been a very useful tool. In retrospect, I was a quietly ADHD child whose inability to stop fiddling with objects turned (around puberty) into a constant background feeling of agitation, like my skin didn’t quite fit. My mom’s prescription (Go Outside and Run Around) never did anything for me.

Now, I find a quiet enjoyment in tasks that require a little muscle. Not lifting weights- that is boring beyond comprehension; a sterile activity to my way of thinking, since its product is not immediately tangible. That’s part of the reason I got into blacksmithing; you exert physical control over your surrounding to impose your will on fire and steel, and then you get to use it to open letters or hang up your jacket.

I’ve been trekking back and forth to the parents’ homestead a lot lately. Between missing my wife and kids, the disruption of routine, and the sheer emotional toll of the situation, I’ve been a bit Out of Sorts.

The Old Homestead got hit by its first significant winter storm while I was up there. Feeling miserable, I chose to self-medicate with whisky, a big fire and smores. However, due to circumstance the annual firewood order had not been placed.

A normal middle-aged suburban dude would have gone to a hardware store and gotten a bundle of firewood, or possibly given up and contented himself with the alcohol. But (being a dumbass) I decided I would chop my own firewood from a bunch of logs left over from tornado season.

I always laugh at the movie trope of Guy Chopping Firewood. When my sister came around the side of the house, it was all I could do not to respond “I’m retired.”

But there’s something to it. The steady, moderate physical work. The satisfaction of wood splitting and splintering. The need to maintain reasonable focus to avoid Axe Leg. It’s soothing in a way I never expected.

So hurray for heavy work. Highly recommended.

NFL News:

Aaron Rodgers has a broken left wrist. Mike Tomlin said that it doesn’t need surgery. Asked for further elaboration, Rodgers’ personal physician indicated this includes psychic surgery, and cupping, as “fome routine blood-letting and leechcraft fhall be all that if required.”

-The Legend of Davis Mills rides again for the Texans, with CJ Stroud (concussion) ruled out for Thursday’s game against the Bills.

-While he was busy handing out crates of ammo to the Hater Brigade, Shedeur Sanders’ house was being burgled. I don’t have a joke here; had Cleveland taken him as projected in Round 1, I would crack one about Andrew Berry and Jimmy Haslam sneaking in to get back what Sanders had stolen from them. But at this point he’s an almost tragic figure.