at least as manly as a skinny 51 year old man can be manly.

I have to do exercise due to high cholesterol (I think my doctor won't give me pills, because if he did, I might stop exercising - you life science geniuses out there, if you can invent a pill to replace exercise, sign me up - I would pay $10 a day when I am feeling lazy, but if you got it down to $5, I would take it every day and skip exercise entirely...)

Anyway, I am sick of the treadmill, primarily because everything on TV is so boring, especially after you watch the middle hour of Shawshank redemption 18 times, and being outside to do that is almost just as boring. So back to the manly part. My 40 foot magnolia tree froze this last winter (so cold this winter it froze, I think - so much for global warming eh?).

So I decided to chop down the tree. I guess if I was really manly, I would have chosen a hatchet instead of an Ax, so call me wimpy.

I started by sawing off all of the big branches and dragging them into the forest (my house backs up into open space. I am either creating habitat or a fire hazard - not sure which). That was a pretty good workout - tugging heavy things for a good distance. Then came the chopping - I would guess the trunk is probably about 18" through the middle. I have chopped about 75% through.

Wow! What a workout. Those guys from the tree chopping era must have been totally buff, but definitely very manly. I liked how the tree looked, but I hated the leaves on the lawn and those seed droppings. I will miss the evergreen color of the tree, but won't miss it that much...

Well, done with this break - back to seeing the forest through the trees...chop.....chop......TIMBER!!!!