Got Muscles?

If not, I should have.  The past couple of weeks have been filled with opportunities to build muscles. 

Of course there’s been the repeat pattern of pack boxes, move to car and take to Goodwill, which surely builds muscle. I unpacked a bin of notes and books from my MBA.  The notes went into recycle and the books are still a question mark.  They are probably out dated, but I still want to research before tossing them (or as Mike suggested, use the band saw to cut through the books so the pages can be recycled.  Not as strange as his experience using the radial arm saw to make croutons out of old bread, but close). 

Like many people, I am trying to exercise more this year (also one of my retirement goals).  I am walking, stretching and doing light weight lifting.  After several days a week of this regimen, I can feel some abs and gluts that previously were non-existent.  Ok, it’s more like when I move, they hurt!  I will take that as a good sign of muscle formation…

And then there was packing the U-Haul trailer to move some furniture for my new study at Mike’s house.  After some interesting conversation with people at various U-Haul stores including a person who gave us patently incorrect information to another tough guy who said, “this ain’t my first rodeo” while hooking up the trailer to the Nitro, we rented the trailer for 3 days.  If I thought the renting was tough, I didn’t anticipate the strength and muscles needed to lift and move furniture into the U-Haul.  Pain in my lower back was evidence of lifting a recliner, leather chair and ottoman and desk. At first I didn’t know if this was an “oh $*** I hurt my back, or if it was muscles screaming, but the next morning I felt great!  Go muscles go!

Then last weekend, Mike and I got to help prepare Lucas Oil Stadium for the Super Bowl.  No, I wasn’t giving pointers to Eli Manning or Tom Brady; it wasn’t quite that glamorous.  We were part of a volunteer organization called One Brick who put commemorative seat cushions on 50,000 seats in the stadium.   I never did calculate how many seat cushions I put in place or how many stairs I climbed, but suffice it to say that my body was quite sore at the end of the day. 

We had a blast seeing Lucas Oil Stadium for the first time and without the huge crowds you would normally experience.  We got to witness preparations for the big event including setting up and tearing down the stage for the half time event. It was an incredible experience to be part of Super Bowl 46 and helping a children’s charity at the same time (NFL donated to a One Brick charity as payment for this work).  We were very impressed with all the volunteers who participated in this daunting task.  In case you are wondering, the remainder of the seats will get their seat cushions on Saturday however, I am not sure our bodies have had enough recovery time to volunteer for that work.

Got muscles?  Not yet, but I’m working on it.

Diane