Since approximately 2019, I have had, at any given point, between 4 and 200,000 little raised bumps on my arms and legs. Here in rural America, that can mean something really dark, but in my case, it has more to do with pockets of bright sunlight. The little bumps are the tips of thorns, mostly multiflora rose with some greenbriar mixed in for good measure, broken off and slowly working their way back out of the epidermis. Others like prickly ash and the rubus leave their mar

I said goodbye to the old job on march 19th. About a week later, I popped back in to say hello, pulling a trailer I'd just bought, which already had taillight issues, loaded with tree tubes that I'd had to stop to adjust 3 times on the drive due to 40+ mph winds. Saying hello to the staff, including the animals, at the nature center made me feel at home. I'd spent ten years there, and this was the first time back since I had fledged the nest. Or, perhaps the better metaphor