Practical exercise

Some people argue that exercise for its own sake is enough reason to do it. I like the idea of practical exercise, where I accomplish something beyond exercise. With ping-pong, I enjoy it. For today's exercise, I have rocks in my front yard. 

I don't pay attention to anything outside the four walls of my house. That's my partner's department. She decided enough rocks had eroded from the front curb area that we needed to buy more. One method would be to pay for a delivery, which would be a minimum of 1 ton of rock for $200. A ton would be overkill, so the next option was to visit the local rock store (for lack of a better term) and fill up buckets ourselves. 

Between last weekend and this weekend, we brought back seven loads of five 5-gallon buckets of gravel. All told, it was only about $60, plus the time and labor to haul the rocks. 

I felt a sense of accomplishment when it was done, even though it took a few hours of my time. At least I have a visible result for all the work compared with hauling free weights around a gym. 

Exercise is good; practical exercise is better.