Some things you have to be nuts to even try

Okay, so there are people out there who have very well-established comfort zones. Some have them so well-established that any attempt to step outside that comfort zone freaks them out, whether it's them stepping out of it, or someone else. Some people, for example, say that I'm completely nuts to go camping in the backcountry every so often when I have a perfectly nice house right here. It's not exactly an untenable position. Granted, they may be missing the point of going into the backcountry in the first place, but their point is nevertheless a valid one.

My comfort zone tends to be a little bit on the wider side. I like being in the middle of nowhere for days on end. I routinely face off with a guy who's bigger and stronger than me and end up getting pretty badly bruised for it.

So me and one of my long-time martial arts partners have taken it upon ourselves to learn a form which involves duking it out with shiny, pointy weapons, and trying not to kill each other in the process. I arm myself with a Chinese eagle spear, he arms himself with a nine-ringed halberd, and we promptly attempt to kill each other with them.

Okay, it's not as crazy as it sounds.

The halberd is made out of steel and is methodically hacked at my feet, my head, and my chest throughout the form. In return, I jab my spear, methodically, at his head, chest and feet. Each time, we duck, dodge, or move out of the way of the offending weapon before it has a chance to skewer or clobber us.

Again, let me emphasize my previous "not as crazy as it sounds" dictum.

It should be mentioned that the spear is blunted (it looks sharp, but it really isn't), and the halberd is unsharpened (pointy and heavy, but not sharp); but even these can do a lot of damage if they hit you hard enough. The halberd (the heavy metal end of which is repeatedly swung at my head) weighs in at about 10 lbs, give or take a little.

For those of you who haven't figured it out yet, that's enough to leave a substantial bruise, or crush a finger quite nicely if it should happen to hit one.

I think you can see where this is going.

Making a long story short (which is actually kinda a necessity, since I'm trying to type this without use of my right index finger), my right index finger is now in a splint. They haven't x-rayed it, but at the very least, it needs to be immobilized until the swelling goes down.

The fact that a blunt weapon managed to draw a not insubstantial amount of blood should probably tell you something.

So, we'll see how long this takes to heal. Fortunately, I'm still able to do the lion dances over Chinese new year, but I don't know how functional my right hand is going to be for martial arts demonstrations.

Stay tuned.