Another Campfire Story from Joshua Tree: The Phoenix Lights

Out here in the desert, the sky feels closer. You spend enough nights under it — real nights, away from city glow — and you start noticing how alive it feels. Satellites gliding. Aircraft blinking. Meteors streaking. The occasional thing that doesn’t fit neatly into a category. Which brings us to tonight’s campfire story. Not from Joshua Tree… but from another desert sky. March 13, 1997 — Phoenix, Arizona. Thousands of people reported seeing a formation of lights moving silently across the sky. Not dozens. Not hundreds. Thousands. Witnesses described a massive V-shaped structure — some saying it blocked out the stars as it passed overhead. Completely silent. Slow. Controlled. Intentional. Later that evening, another set of lights appeared over Phoenix, hovering and slowly descending behind the mountains. That second event was eventually attributed to military flares dropped during an exercise. But the earlier sightings? Still debated. Pilots reported it. Police officers reported it. Ordinary families standing in their driveways reported it. Arizona’s governor at the time even joked publicly about it — before later admitting he had witnessed something himself. No official explanation has ever fully closed the case. And here’s the thing about desert skies — whether you’re in Arizona or Joshua Tree: They don’t give you many places to hide illusions. There’s something about wide open land and unobstructed horizon that makes you trust what you’re seeing a little more. Or at least question it differently. So when stories like the Phoenix Lights come up, they resonate out here. Because anyone who’s spent enough time under a desert sky knows: You can identify most of what passes overhead. But not everything. And sometimes the unexplained isn’t about proving what happened… It’s about acknowledging that thousands of people looked up on the same night and realized they didn’t have an answer. Just another story for the fire.

The Long Way Back: Week 4 Recap

I started this journey on January 7, 2026, and so far it has been smooth sailing. Today I woke up at 249.6 pounds, which puts me a little over 20 pounds lost in a month. When you start at essentially morbid obesity, even small changes can result in dramatic drops on the scale. This past week I made adjustments to my strength training — specifically my leg routine. I have Rheumatoid Arthritis, which keeps my left knee in constant pain. It’s very difficult to do isolated single-leg exercises without aggravating it. So for now, I’m sticking with manageable-weight trap bar deadlifts and cable leg extensions. When the knee feels warmed up and cooperative, I’ll add in some goblet squats with kettlebells. Three weeks in, I think I’ve normalized most of the bloating and water retention from when I began. This week had days where the scale wouldn’t budge — and then, woosh… two pounds gone overnight. That’s just how it goes sometimes. Extra carbs, sodium, or lack of sleep can all drive water retention. The key is staying consistent and riding it out. My daily calories fluctuate between 1100 and 1700. I raise carbs and calories slightly on lifting days. I try not to stay too low for obvious reasons, but sometimes life gets busy and the priority becomes hitting protein with a shake and moving on. Those are areas I’ll tighten up when I get closer to 220 pounds. One thing I’ve been more consistent with is steps. I’m reliably hitting 10,000, often landing between 11,000–13,000. My goal is to build that back toward 20,000 steps per day over the next couple of weeks. When you’ve been overweight your entire life, nothing feels more important than getting that number on the scale as low as possible. But the wiser approach is building habits that are sustainable long-term — sticking to principles that reinforce lasting change. So for the rest of this year, the focus is on building muscle and building habits that keep the weight off. It’s a work in progress.

The Long Way Back — Week 3 Recap

Starting weight: 270 lbs on January 7, 2026. As of January 27, 2026: 254.7 lbs. The first three weeks have come with plenty of water loss—and that’s perfectly fine. It’s expected when you drastically lower carbohydrate and sodium intake. Most of this loss is water, along with some lean mass and fat. This is probably the point where that rapid drop starts to slow down. Eating similar foods consistently will normalize water retention, and the scale should begin reflecting real fat loss more clearly. This week, I finally started tracking calories. I used a TDEE calculator to estimate maintenance at about 2426 calories. A moderate deficit for someone my size puts me around 1900 calories, with the low end near 1700. That’s what ChatGPT gave me as a range. I’ve also started tracking protein, aiming for 140–160 grams per day. Honestly, I haven’t even been hitting 1700 calories most days. The way my meals are structured, the protein fills me up fast and keeps me full for a long time. The upside? I’m still hitting my protein and creating a larger deficit. Even short-term, that will pay dividends. On the activity side, I’ve been more disciplined with steps—11k to 13k per day, mostly on the treadmill at a slight incline. That should be close to 500 calories burned from walking alone. Not an exact science… but again, every step pays dividends. Here’s the part I have to be honest about: This phase is familiar. I know how to lose weight. I’ve done it many times as an adult. The problem has always been gaining it back. I’ve been everywhere from 155 lbs to 270 lbs as an adult—more than once. And at this age, it’s getting harder. So I’m drawing up a plan to fight the rebound. Part one: weight training. I’m running a push–pull–legs split using a Bowflex system I bought on Facebook Marketplace for $150. I also picked up a trap bar and plates so I can build real strength with deadlifts. Part two: slowing it down. Not cutting too aggressively from maintenance. Building something sustainable. Turning this into a lifestyle instead of another crash cycle. Simple enough… right?