Monday, November 17, 2014

Skinny is Good

November 17, 2014

When I was a kid, there's no way around it...I was skinny. No fat, and precious little muscle. When one is small, that doesn't matter much; unless some older child or adult drew attention to it, kids when I was growing up didn't have much body awareness. But as I approached my teen years, I remember looking at other guys, wishing I had a body that had some shape to it, broad shoulders with muscular chest, arms and legs. Being decidedly unathletic, I didn't do much about it. I was able to pass all the physical fitness tests in gym class, even climbing the rope to the ceiling of the gym, but I was still skinny.

When I got married, I was six feet and 135 pounds. Scrawny would be the best way to describe me. The joke was, if I stood sideways and stuck out my tongue, I'd look like a zipper. Or, I had to run around in the shower to get wet. But time has a way of dealing what once seemed like one of life's inequities. Peg Riehl, the organist at our first church in Alma, NY, put a different twist on an old saying: "Time wounds all heels."

Many of the guys who in their teens were muscular and buff are now sporting big bellies and high blood pressure, while I need to boost my cholesterol and though thanks to Linda's good cooking, am not as trim as I once was, I'm in better shape than ever before. I am able to work out, and today discovered a blessing in skinny that I never anticipated. It has to do with the fireplace saga, installment #3.

This morning I made the rounds of four building supply stores, accumulating all the stuff I figured I would need to finish the fireplace. An eight foot 6 x 6, two jackposts, gas line, fittings, cement for the floor, and new boots. The boots have nothing to do with the fireplace, but I needed new ones, so picked up a pair at Tractor Supply while I was making the rounds. Supplies all assembled, I cut two feet off the 6 x 6, and dragged it and the jackposts into the crawl space beneath the living room. There's only about 2 1/2 feet clearance, and the hole I have to wriggle through to get in is less than that. It was on my second trip into the dungeon that it dawned on me that skinny is good. If I had any belly at all, I wouldn't fit through the opening, any more than if I had broad shoulders. It's taken sixty five years, but finally scrawny paid off. I was able to slither my way into the crawl space, maneuver around pipes and piles of stones and wrestle (with difficulty) that 6 X 6 where with the aid of a bottle jack, I'm slowly getting it in place to support the floor that's buckling beneath the weight of the fireplace. Tonight, I am thankful for skinny.

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