The Damn Bear

It was a surprise to me, as I did not think there WERE any BEARS in my neck of the woods, as it was too urban an environment. But, lo-and-behold, there he was.

Of course, I had a surge in the "Fight-or-Flight" hormones of epinephrine and norepinephrine in my body at seeing the massive brown bear.  But, dammit, I had been feeling rather "pushed around" enough by life lately, that I  thought in the back of my mind.... NO... NO MORE!  This time..... this time.... I am going to STAND MY GROUND!

The bear approached me rather quickly, and gave me a rather surprisingly powerful right jab that hit me across the cheek and rattled my eye in its socket a bit.  I admit... it hurt.... a helluva lot.  But, that just riled me up more.  

I took a broad stance with my legs and put up my fists, and POW!.... gave the damnable bear a good right hook!  Then, I regained my footing and threw a powerful left fist into his snout,  and then I rounded it up with another massive right hook to the side of his head!

I swear.... at the end of all that, the bear looked a helluva lot worse for wear than I did!!!!!

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😄

Ok, now onto the more mundane, actual aspects of life....

I ended up tripping on some broken up sidewalk Tuesday morning just about as I was starting mile 9, and took a tumble.  I didn't break my fall very well, nor roll as well as I have done in the past, and my cheek hit the pavement (along with my shoulder, knees, etc).  My cheek split open a bit and I spent the morning in the emergency room getting stitched up.

Everything though, is on the mend.  I have one helluva black eye, though, besides my stitches.  One of the emergency room doctors gave me a "complement" of sorts when he told me he was glad I hadn't hit a bit lower on my face, otherwise he would have had to trim my beard on that side to do the stitching, and that would have “…been a real shame to have to trim it.”

I went home and rested a bit, and did some further grading.

And now, I tried to follow the old, cowboy adage today:

"When you fall off your horse, you have to get back on to ride."

So, this morning, even though I was more than a little bit stiff and sore, I got up at the usual time, and I ran 11.2 miles ( ~18km) so I wouldn't be "spooked" about my fall.... and to stay on track for the week.

My stitches will be removed in a few days.  They are in the same location as on the pirate in the above image, but on the left side.  Too bad it isn't Halloween, I could have used my stitches to enhance my pirate costume at a party.  

PipeTobacco