Clean Up Clean Up

Oh dear. My back is killing me.

So are: my calves, quads, hams, shoulder, and neck muscles. In fact, my entire muscular system is in rebellion against me.

Why? you ask.

Cleaning.

It’s all I’ve been doing these past two days.

Yesterday was dress-down Friday at work. Which means it’s annual clean up day in my office. I was personally involved with moving a dozen of my transfiles, each of which weighs a hefty fifty pounds or so. (A guess; maybe more, maybe less.) Plus, I helped with my workmates’ stuff, too.

I was careful not to lift with my back but lift with my legs. So far, so good. In fact, since the wife and I have a child-free weekend (little ones with the grandparents), we went out for fish tacos and cervezas.

This morning my father-in-law came over and we systematically cleaned our garage, the first time it’s been attempted since the garage sale last April and the first time it’s been thoroughly cleaned since sometime around 2009.

We worked for three hours hauling everything out, made two trips to the recycling center / dump, made a pile of stuff going out curbside Tuesday morning, and put all the keepers back inside in an orderly fashion. We didn’t take a BEFORE pic, but just envision that teenage kid who throws everything in his closet until the door has to remain shut to avoid death by avalanche.

Here’s the AFTER pic:

Not bad, right?

The wife volunteered to get us hungry men some sandwiches. On the way back, she rushes outside where we’re sitting exclaiming: “I’ve found a dresser for you! Someone’s getting rid of a dresser in their driveway and we need to get it now!”

We take two cars to the spot a few blocks away and manage to return with a beautiful, seemingly brand-new light wood dresser for me. (The dresser I currently use is the one I first used as a kindergartener … and it’s in worse physical condition than me …) Unfortunately, it weighs like a hundred pounds, so my father-in-law and me struggle with it – and our cardiovascular systems – to get it in the house and up the stairs to the second storey bedroom.

So, needless to say, I’m quite fatigued. Quaffing a beer now, awaiting dinner and perhaps viewing Lincoln later on tonight.

Hopefully I’ll be able to get out of bed tomorrow. We now have an old dresser to throw out and a bedroom to clean …