My intention was to blog today about books and such (as all those amused and/or annoyed by my invitation to GoodReads might have guessed), but my arms are too tired to type long. The storm finally did show up, and after pouring down rain on us for a day and a half, yesterday it started snowing.
And it didn't stop.
I shoveled the car and driveway out twice yesterday, and this morning got to do it all over again with another six inches. Overall it looks like we got at least a couple of feet. As always when it snows, this means I get a lot of very specific exercise which is repeated far too infrequently to be of any real use. If I shoveled snow every week (not really something I'd look forward to), perhaps I'd have manly arms. As is, I struggle and groan through the winter, and just as I'm getting to the point at which my arms are able to handle extended digging, winter is over and I have three more seasons for them to go flabby again.
It's the same phenomenon that affects my hiking: when I do go, I wear myself down to nothing and wreck my legs by pushing myself as far as I can (which is a disappointingly short distance) until I feel like I'm going to die and become a cautionary tale for future trekkers, but I don't get any benefit from it because I do it too rarely to be of much use as training. Sad, really.
I must admit, however, that while I am trying to work regular walking into my schedule, I'm not really amenable to going out and shoveling dirt during the off-season to stay in shape for winter...
6 comments:
We just finished shoveling out cause Corrina has to go to class tonight. Oh....my....goodness. It usually takes 24 hours for the soreness to kick in...not when you're out of shape, apparently. So how do I find out about your good reads, since *eh-hmm*, I wasn't invited to your original intellectual fest.
Hmmm. I did include you on the invitation list. I don't know why the Internet doesn't like you...
At this point, the easiest thing would be to click on the GoodReads link in my post, sign up, and look for me there. I'd be delighted to find out what you (and anyone else who happens to stroll past this page) recommend.
Similar woes befall those of us who rarely bend and lift repetitively, as we did this weekend with all the wood we had to saw up from the ice storm last month. Ornery has an appointment with the massage therapist tomorrow to work the soreness out of his chainsaw muscles. I will just moan.
TM
I know your pain! Whenever I am back East with family I enjoy shoveling some snow...just to be back out in the cold. Granted, I love that I can then stop and come back to Pasadena.
One of the most satisfying things I accomplished in the yard here at the house was digging out a Yucca tree 'stump'. Digging a hole, filling it in. Isn't that a buddhist thing? Maybe you can find meditative time digging dirt to stay in shape for snow, earning manly arms in the process?
Michael Slusser: Ditch Digger.
Hmmm... can't see it.
Mike,
Sounds like the perfect career option for you is archaeologist. You can spend every work week digging and backfilling endless shovel test pits, and performing transect surveys across terrain that even bighorn sheep avoid. Of course, the pay is peanuts, so you'll have to adjust to living in a trailer and feeding the kids top ramen every night.
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