Thank you! Hopefully I don’t regret this.
Colorado is drunk! We get a month of fall and then winter comes early and sticks around to the end of May. This is my perception of it anyway.
So an October snow happens on occasion, but it melts pretty quickly… because of the elevation I’m guessing.
How are you?! How’s the fam?
I miss snow…
We got some last week. I’m not ready for it this year. Last year’s melted less than six months ago, haha.
I’ll take that over walking outside into 90-100% humidity and >80F temps 9-10 months of the year.
I would too. I don’t mind cold, snow just gets in the way sometimes. But I think I’d almost always pick being cold over suffering through heat and humidity.
I’d send you some of ours if I could!
I know the feeling. We just broke out our electrical hand warmers this week.
That sounds delightful. It’s like a sauna! Wanna trade houses? You could come hang out with Chris.
It’s good for about 1 day a year. But it’s often too hot outside to do anything for more than an 1 hour or 2 tops (especially with little kiddos). And Florida has no cool hiking trails - just swamps full of gators and venomous snakes.
Thankfully it has cooled off this week into a comfortable temperature and the humidity has dropped off.
Ok, I need to keep this in mind next time I’m tempted to complain about the cold. I guess everywhere has its own set of pros and cons.
Gators are a whole other topic. They’re basically dinosaurs, which is both amazing and terrifying to people who don’t have them in their part of the country.
That’s great to hear! Florida also has awesome plant-life. Post some outdoorsy pics if y’all get out and about this weekend.
The snow melted and it’s warm-ish again, so we caught the sunrise this morning. It lit up the orange rock formations at Garden of the Gods, and I’m thinking about framing a couple of these pics.
According to Friends of Garden of the Gods, the formations were once sand dunes, and 65 million years ago, the old Pacific plate slammed into the North American plate. So the overlying sedimentary rocks were shoved upward creating these monoliths. (I don’t have the foundational knowledge to understand most of that.)
More importantly, Roxy’s default-ear-position is one up, one down.
At most times of day these rocks are more like shades of pale mauve and orange, but when the sun is on the horizon, they look like brilliant flames.
Around this time last year, a group of deer galloped past us at this exact spot, and I got a video of it. We didn’t spot any deer today.
Yes, my husbands butt looks this good on a constant basis. Stop asking about that.
Another enormous flame.
Here we are on the west side of the rock formations. Without that direct light from the sunrise hitting it, the colors are much more muted. These things seem to change color throughout the day.
The peak with the white top, to the far right is Pike’s Peak. It will have snow on it from now till about May or June. Candace and I were at the top last July and I shared a pic of that here.
One ear up, one ear down.
Not asking, just celebrating.
The photography in this log is incredible!
So, I’d really like to have time to comment in this most awesome log more, but work and life really cramp my style. lol
I’m going to just do kind of a longish post with some of the comments and thoughts I’ve wanted to put down in here lately, feel free to totally disregard all of this disjointed nonsense if you’d like.
So, first off, thank you so much for posting the link to “The Struggle Is Real” sermon series at your church. I just listened to the first one and am going to “binge listen” to the rest for sure. That is such good stuff. So many great reminders of who God is, what He does, and all He has promised. If there’s one thing I love more than anything else, it’s Jesus and it’s so nice to have that connection with some folks here too. So, just THANK YOU for not being shy about it. If it makes some people twitchy, they’re most likely the ones that need to hear about Jesus the most. So, twitch away. lol
And next, the working out around injuries and new, seemingly the “rest of your life” body problems - Girl, I feel this SO hard. After I hit 40, things have just been rough. Hip, lower back, and like @EmilyQ, I’ve got the neck/upper back/shoulder thing that gets irritated too. I refer to it all as my “revolving door of pain” - the issue just moves around. I’ll have a week where the upper left side (back/neck/shoulder) is wonky and then the next week or two it’ll be on the right and then just for fun, it’ll go back to the lower back/hip (especially if I start getting excited about leg pressing and do it often or too heavy.) My workouts have changed so much over the past two years - but it’s necessary and probably actually not a bad thing (I used to be a CHRONIC over trainer). Now, I know I can’t deadlift or barbell squat if I don’t want to kill my lower back; I can’t run any amount of distance on the regular or get crazy with leg press volume if I don’t want my hip to hurt; and I’m still trying to figure out the whole upper back/shoulder/neck thing - who even knows what that’s all about. I’ve really started just doing what I like to do and what feels good. So, what that looks like right now is a couple Spin classes each week; a couple HIIT/Crossfit-esque type workouts a week (there’s a class at my gym that’s super fun); and a couple full body weight training workouts each week. I take days off whenever I feel like I need one and just walk on those days. AND every single day I do a little bit of mobility stuff, foam rolling, lacrosse ball rolling, etc. stuff. I feel like that stuff has really helped - I hate every second of it though. lol
And… all of your pics make me miss CO so much!! I haven’t been to Garden of the Gods in FOREVER and now I want to go back right now!! Such great pics! I also LOVE all the recipes you and @Chris_Shugart post. If I ever win the lottery I am going to buy a lifetime supply of MD so that I can try them all!
To wrap all of this up, I LOVE this log, so please, just keep being you and posting all this great stuff. Even though I don’t comment often - know that I’m reading and that your vulnerability, honesty and rants are truly appreciated and they help me feel like I’m not out here struggling through this crazy life alone. 
Finally a moment to give a bit more of a reply!
Haha what a weird honour!
That’s so good to hear, I stumbled across your TRT post the other day, and saw something about what got you in to that dark place (theological argument, if I’ve read the different threads and connected the dots correctly) nice to see that the word got was integral, alongside the T replacement, in bringing you out of that dark place.
Definitely on the Christmas list now, looking forward to it, glad to hear there are accompanying videos - my wife isn’t a big reader!
An absolute pleasure, always a joy to be able to talk with the global family!
That’s fantastic, lovely to see he’s gifted on teaching and pastoral as well, (or the team as a whole is), so important to recognise the diversity of giftings on a church and ensure the church is strong in all of the areas, If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad.
Absolutely joyful! I’m the same with my home church, been there 10 years and I still come back to two words to describe it: unity and family. It’s not the church that best aligns with my personal theology (holds all of the fundamentals), it’s not the church that does everything perfectly, but it’s definitely the church, in my local area, that works out the gospel and shows God’s love the best and that is why I’m there! I reckon if I lived nearby you I’d feel the same a out Manna!
I’ll finish off the series on commutes!
I’m the queen of weird comments. Hopefully they’re not off-putting. 
Thank you for checking out my ramblings.
One of the things that’s important – for everyone, I’d assume – is to figure out if your dark place is biological or psychological. When my dad hurt my feelings, it was a psychological blow. But my months-long reaction to it, where I sank into a depression, might’ve been biological. It just seemed like I should’ve gotten over that faster.
So discovering that I was hormonally depleted, and likely had been for a long time, was an absolute eye-opener. Estrogen, progesterone, and test were all low.
Then sometime last winter, my hormones were on point and I was taking all the right stuff… but I had this constant nagging thought that would pop up in my mind, at night especially. I was lacking a sense of purpose. That was psychological, or maybe more precisely, spiritual. But getting an answer regarding purpose, shifted my perspective completely.
(On a biological note, progesterone has been incredible for mood and wellbeing. More so than even testosterone. I actually slowly got off T over the past month, and so far feel great mentally, but my body isn’t recovering from workouts too well… so I’ll get more blood tests and then see where to go from here with T. If my body can make enough, I’d rather not have to take it.)
Well, the first segment of every chapter is the best. So even if you were to only work through those, it’d still be worth it. Just remember, you can skip the exercises that aren’t helpful.
That is profound and so true.
Seriously incredible! And the fact that it still feels unified and familial is huge.
Beautifully stated. I’m so glad you dropped in! Thanks for the great conversation.
SAME!! I will never stop celebrating that. 
Oh my goodness, that means the world to hear! Thank you for the awesome compliment!
HAHA no worries! Life-stuff is always more important than internet social time. I’m just stoked to have you here when you do pop in!
What!? I’m so glad you got the chance to listen to it! Sermons are fantastic ways to get a bunch of chores done.
So one of my favorite series from this year was on the book of Daniel. The relevance regarding that book and what we see today is just wild. I might re-listen to the whole thing.
You always put a smile on my face! Thank you for the sweet words of encouragement!
It’s a relief to know that I’m not a weirdo though! LOL so I’m glad you gals popped in here and shared your experiences with injuries!
STEALING THIS
Are we the same person? This is so me. All of it.
And what’s weird is, if I start getting good at something and my strength is consistently progressing for multiple reps, then uh oh! That means I’m about to get hurt.
So it almost pays off to stay mediocre performance-wise in order to stay consistent. Or a more positive spin would be to get kinda good at something, then ease off it a bit while you get kinda good at something else.
You’ve likely already played around with this, but one of the things that helped with my neck area pain was getting the traps loosened up a bit. My cervical spine is permanently damaged, but it feels much better if I can get the traps loosened up a bit either with SMR or stretching. They’re always tight.
That approach sounds ideal! And I’m with you on the foam rolling. I did it this morning instead of a legit workout. Barf.
So in my revolving door of injuries, one thing that started to happen a couple years ago is a ripping/burning feeling in my lungs. I was used to pushing myself as hard as possible doing some form of metcon during workouts. Then one day, my body rebelled and I couldn’t even do a fraction of what I used to without burning lung pain (upper back) that would stick around for weeks… even while lying in bed.
I had a ton of tests done, and nothing came of it except for all the medical bills that insurance didn’t cover.
So, no intense cardio or metabolic conditioning for me. I can do supersets on occasion, but nothing like what I used to do that’d leave me laying on the floor in a puddle. (Those were the best!) Also no battling ropes, sprints, or prowler pushing. I miss intense cardio, but walking is about it for me these days.
Ahhh thank you so much!! Any time you miss a Colorado landmark, just think about all the tourists, or the annoying dog owners who talk loudly to their animals like they’re children. ( I can’t help it!) 
Ah! This is so touching and appreciate all the insights you’ve shared here. You don’t ever need to feel pressured to comment, but do know that you’re always welcome to drop your thoughts and wisdom here. I feel honored to have you as a friend. 
I’m going to need to listen to this series now too! Thank you so much for the recs! My church has been doing a series called That’s a Great Question that addresses what scripture says about some of the big things we face everyday and/or the issues in society that are hot buttons right now. I’m really enjoying it. A few years ago, we did a series called The End, which went through Revelations, that one was really great - quite possibly my favorite. So, if you run out of sermon listening material, there’s a few more that you can check out if you’d like!
Steal away! I’d really like to just gift it to someone mean permanently. I mean, what does it take to get a new door around here? Preferably, a “revolving door of awesome”. lol
I kind of feel like we are, or at the very least, sisters or something. Because almost every time I read your posts, I’m over here going, “SAME”. It’s kind of ridiculous. We definitely need to meet at some point, just to be sure we are, in fact, two different people. lol
EXACTLY!!! Every. Single. Time. It’s stupid predictable.
I’m going to make trap loosening more of a priority now, so thank you for the rec! I’ll try anything to just not hurt all the time!
LOL! I used to refer to it as “Crowdorado”, because yeah, even at 14,000 feet, you’re surrounded by 100 of your best friends.
SAME!!
Definitely checking those out!!
HA! Exactly!
We do!
So last year, I discovered a deep stretch that hit the traps, but ended up tweaking the crap out of my neck further, which is just like me. So maybe when you find a good deep stretch, err on the side of caution with it.
It’s true! And you meet some interesting people up there.
How Do You Know When to Deload?
Some people just plan for it and I’m starting to think they’re right.
On Friday my workout was hilariously bad. I hit failure on dips somewhere between reps 2 and 3, which is unusual since that’s one of my best bodyweight exercises. So I took it as a sign to deload. Everything has been aching anyway (sign 2), so it’ll be good to take some time off. I don’t even want to lift lightly. I just want to not be in the gym for about a week. And that’s probably sign number 3 of needing a deload.
The cool thing is, when you’re not spending energy on workouts, you start itching to use it elsewhere, like assembling crap.
So that’s one thing I did over the weekend.
Kipper inspected everything with a quick sniff-test and then gave me the green light to proceed.
He takes this job very seriously.
I still have a little bathroom storage cabinet thing to put together. But this office chair is great. It spins around and doesn’t leave wheel marks in your carpeted home office.
Also, Wayfair has already begun their Black Friday sale.
Also, remember a while back when the biggest conspiracy theory was that Wayfair was selling children? (I forgot about that before buying my stuff.)
Also, what’s the craziest conspiracy you didn’t believe at first, but now you’re all in on? I have one. It rhymes with caked loon manding.
When performance drops or when life kind of just happens… I don’t plan them, I fall into them.
-The CIA trying to ingite the upper atmosphere into an eternal fire. (nuclear physicists said the math checks out that if you nuke the upper atmosphere it will ignite and stay self igniting indefinitely. They nuked it anyways, didn’t work),
-Chemicals in the water turning the frogs gay. (technically it transexual’ed them)
-The CIA using covert ops to gather a DNA database for non-consenting participants. (they used this in Pakistan to track Bin Laden, under the guise of “vaccinations”)
-Operation Northwoods
-Moon Landing (I’m 50/50 here)
-Stellar Winds/Edward Snowden
-Planned Parenthood selling baby “parts” for profit.
-CIA/FBI selling crack to the inner city for dark money funding.
-CIA protecting poppy fields in the middle east during Enduring Freedom to generate more dark money funding.
-Gavin Newsom being Pelosi’s nephew.
-9/11 attacks being an inside job
-Deep state forcing new senators/congressmen/governors/etc to do “things” with minors so they can be compromised and swayed to vote in a certain manner.
I’m sure theres more, but that should get the ball rolling
