Don't Worry, This Does NOT Represent The Start Of A New Hobby

Nor the start of a new series of blog posts either, for the record.  However, I saw one of these for the first time ever (and I live in an area with a lot of birds) while walking the dog this afternoon and I thought it was pretty darned cool.

I texted a friend who is a self-described 'bird nerd' then and there from the side of the road, noting that I'd just seen what appeared to be an otherwise-entirely-black bird wearing orange and red shoulderpads and asking her what the hell it was!  She identified it immediately...a cookie and good karma for the day to anyone here who also recognizes it.  She also asked if I was going to get into birding now...as she knows as well as anyone (she was one of my early caching mentors), the last thing on God's green earth I need right now is another new time-consuming hobby.  Especially another one that puts me out in the woods with ticks and snakes etc any more than I am already!

In other news for the day, my weight-lifting regimen appears to be indeed increasing my upper body strength as promised: I was able to easily pick up and toss (the technical term is 'hip throw') a 195-lb male taekwondo classmate of mine this morning whole practicing my self-defenses!  Hot damn and hallelujah.