The renter who had occupied the house for five years was moving out. ED drove out to meet the manager first thing Monday morning. Shortly, her text “This place is a mess!” was a cry for help, calling me to forego RIPPED.
Several hours of work left me as exhausted as if I had gone to class. Squats were replaced by climbing ladders to clean lights. Balance exercises replaced by climbing down the ladder. Carrying bricks and stones to the driveway constituted weight training. Flexibility was interchanged with retrieving cigarette butts from the yard. Cognition was taxed with sequencing of tasks and determining which light bulbs were appropriate for the fixtures (who knew there could be so many varieties?).
There was a time when people did not need to go to the gym to get in shape. Every day life was enough to shape the body. Now we need to work out to prepare for the few times that household chores challenge us.
I admit, though, that I was pleased that I could ascend to the third step of the ladder. This is progress for me, something I couldn’t do a year ago. I went home and celebrated.
