My karate instructure used to say that getting kicked in the balls wasn't all that big a deal

I'm going to try and sell that to some folks at the centre. I don't think it'll work, but it's worth a shot. In fact, I'll offer to help them get used to it.

I'm not sure I understand this. People intentionally hit you in the nuts if you're wearing cup?

No, you just get kicked in the balls a lot as a matter of course playing soccer, and most people don't wear cups because they are restrictive in a game where you have to run a lot at speed. Ball bouncing around between feet means that there will be a fair amount of incidental contact, not to mention the intentional stuff.

I've never been hit in the liver or kicked in the balls. I hope that by saying this I don't incur the wrath of the ball-kicker god....

I've been hit in the balls, and it isn't just painful, but debilitating. Your body is suffused with a deep, hard, spreading nausea that seems to radiate out from your kidneys, whilst you lay there in a gelid gibbering state.

Frank, I'm feeling the same way. And I like hot. This is just getting....uhg. Mainly because I don't have good cool-down options. I don't even want to know how hot my apartment will be when I get home. It was 75 when I left. The a/c ran all night.

The birds outside my window right now? Are panting. That's not right.

I've been hit in the balls, and it isn't just painful, but debilitating. Your body is suffused with a deep, hard, spreading nausea that seems to radiate out from your kidneys, whilst you lay there in a gelid gibbering state.

Huh.

Well it seems that I've lacked one or two quintessentially male experiences, but I think I'll survive without this one.

It is 96 degrees out there. It's supposed to be 76 tomorrow. I'm not buying it. It's so hazy, the sky looks white, but I'm not seeing anything in the way of clouds that would indicate a major change in temprature is coming.

It's real. We're a day or two ahead of you in this, and it is pleasant and almost cool today after topping 100 on Sunday.

People to the east of me: I promise, it's going to cool off. Between yesterday and today, the temperature has dropped 20 degrees. And the weather system is moving east. Hang in there.

I've been hit in the balls, and it isn't just painful, but debilitating

That's a distinction I've tried to draw to guys who rank it with being hit in the breasts -- that's just pain, and varies a LOT. The whole "I'm down! I'm getting up! I'm falling over..." thing is bigger than just localised pain.

The liver -- well, I don't know if it's like the groin, but it's certainly a radiating and highly distracting pain that flushes right through you and does things like encourage you to vomit or pee right there.

Your body is suffused with a deep, hard, spreading nausea that seems to radiate out from your kidneys, whilst you lay there in a gelid gibbering state.

Yup, and it takes a second for the pain to actually register. You're first thought is usually "Whoa, that wasn't too... YEOWWWWWWWWWWWW"

It hadn't occurred to me that men would wince at bras.

True. More likely to jot down a few notes for future reference...