Oh my aching back...

Yesterday we drained Lake Lumsden - the ice pond - that has formed this winter at the bottom of our driveway. Thank God our neighbor, Gene, took pity on our miserable souls and joined us with an ice chopper and LOTS of upper body strength (proof, once again, that while I can often write a mean sentence and even wrestle theologically with the best and the brightest, if I had to eek out a living in the jungle I would be toast.)

Today, both Di and I are limping/gimping around with aching muscles and backs and total exhaustion. But at least that f##**'n skating rink is gone from our driveway - or so I thought. It was back today in a new incarnation as more Berkshire snow melts and heads to the lowest point in the county. Tomorrow will try to drain a ditch to catch the run off melt - maybe - or as someone from church suggested, "Maybe you could just come to love black ice!"

Whenever I have to do REALLY tough physical labor - which I can muster but always hurt after - I think of this clip from Woody Allen's "Take the Money and Run." (If you watch it go to the chain gang scene... and that's me, "Goin' to Mississippi... gonna see Miss Liza." Oy vey!