The desert winter can be harsh.

There are times when it I so wicked one is compelled to put their socks on.

Since I am a tough guy, I am going without socks this morning. Out into the garage I step to retrieve the almond milk for this morning’s Americano, and I am stabbed with a razor sharp ice pick straight to my bone.

Ok – perhaps that over states the moment 

I stepped on a scorpion who met the assault with a sting on the bottom of my middle toe.

A scorpion sting is some sort of poison that is basically a cross between Cobra venom and Agent Orange. And for weeks I can trace the nerve that leads from my big toe to somewhere just below my ass.

Because that little bastard lit up that neural pathway like so much napalm.