One Chore Leads to Another

The road to the gym is paved with good intentions. And then you get involved in household and garden chores and before you know it the intention has given way to watching the ball game on TV and taking a nap.

Here's the sequence: We agreed it would be a good idea to go to the gym today. It's too hot to do any outdoor activity and the gym is air conditioned. Sounded like a good idea at the time and although we slept late we still dressed in gym clothes.

But before going downstairs for breakfast there was the chore of cleaning the three upstairs air conditioner filters. So I gave them a good vacuuming and replaced them. Meanwhile, my wife did the laundry.

Feeling virtuous we then had a nice breakfast and looked at the Sunday papers. Time passed. Should we go to the gym before or after lunch? After, I said. So we prepared lunch and since our patio is shaded we opted for eating out. Very comfortable. Ball game on the kitchen TV but audio loud enough to follow the action.

More paper-reading. Then, my wife decides to fertilize our patio plants. While she's doing that I go to the front and water the plants there. By the time I get back she's at the rear of the yard picking dead day lily stalks out of the ground. They come out easily, so I decide to help her.

Next thing I know I'm clipping weeds. Meantime, it's getting warmer and warmer. We are no longer in the shade but out in the hot sun. We make a nice mess of garden debris but rather then pick it up we decide to leave it for the gardener who comes tomorrow. We hope he'll get the message and tidy up.

So now we collapse into chairs under our patio umbrella, huffing and puffing and trying to regain enough energy to make it inside.

The gym? Fuggedaboudit!