I wanna be a cowboy

Can you hear that song in your head? [Danger! Danger! Not the original vocals!] Will it now be embedded there for hours? Possibly days? Good. My work is done.

A couple days ago, Pasta Queen proprosed that we give up our gym memberships and start volunteering to help people move. Great exercise, and something actually gets accomplished instead of, for instance, treading nowhere.

Well, my neighbor asked me to horse- and dog-sit for her this weekend, so I've been cleaning stalls under her tutelage for the past couple days, before she leaves town and I'm left to shovel shit on my own. Walking home from the barn last night, I kind of wished I had something physical like that to do every day. You know, like in the old days, when people did "chores."

Chores today aren't quite as strenuous as they used to be. Modern vaccum cleaners are self-propelled, as are lawnmowers. We drive through a short tunnel to wash our cars and press a button to clean our showers. [I confess: I bought one of those new push-button shower cleaner thingies. What a back-saver!] Dirty dishes are a thing of the past – they spend the day in the dirty-dish storage unit dishwasher where they are magically and automatically cleaned and sterilized overnight.

We still change linens and make beds as our grandmothers did. [You do make your bed every morning, don't you?] Although tossing a comforter back up over the sheets probably is a little less strenuous than tucking the pillows in that old chenille bedspread. Our laundry process is much easier and less time-consuming. We don't even have to clean our own salad greens, or peel our own carrots, since so much of our food preparation is already done by the time the food gets to the grocery shelves.

I am, as usual, not saying anything new. And even though I'm fortunate enough to have the time, since I don't have to work outside the home, I'm not eager to give up my modern conveniences.

But it would be good to feel like working out counted for something more than just moving fat off my body.

And how about a quote for Friday:

Bodily exercise, when compulsory,
does no harm to the body;
but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion
obtains no hold on the mind.”

Plato