Today’s choice was to take my neighbor’s stuff.
Let’s back up now. So far you just know that I’ve committed to make one healthy choice each day for 69 days as a birthday gift to my dad. Subsequent posts will give more of the backstory, but today’s story must be shared.
My past choices (I’m a little over 20 days into this when I decided to blog about it) include increasing my activity. One of the fitness systems I’ve chosen suggests that to meet my current fitness goal, I need to burn an additional number of calories each day.
457 to be exact.
457 calories.
That’s not a big number if you don’t have 5 kids. If I could count my ears ringing every time someone said, “Mom,” I’d be skinny as a toothpick. But I can’t. And I’m not.
We’re in the midst of a winter weather advisory or watch or warning or some such. So I stayed home from church rather than showing the kids how to ice skate with a van. Ethnic Man went to serve in his ministry with The Athlete. Since I was home, I decided to exercise to Dance Central on Kinect. Fun. Burned some calories. But just over 100. Not enough.
During my Kinect-ing, the ice received a thick buttercream-like frosting cover of snow. Ethnic Man returned and shoveled two tire strips down the driveway and parked the car. At that moment, I had a stroke of genius. I’ll shovel the snow! said I to myself. That’ll burn calories. And I won’t be stuck in front of that computer.
The snow let up this afternoon, so they all started getting bundled for Bible quizzing practice. I got online and looked up “shoveling snow” on fitness tracker. Yippee!! Shoveling snow for 30 minutes was a 336-calorie burn. And what we had was thick, wet snow. Heavy, calorie-burning snow. Oh yeah…it’s on! They drove away, I waved from the window, and took a big inhale as I focused my eyes on the driveway to mentally prepare for my task.
That’s when I realized what had gone wrong. While I was bustling to finish a project and helping everyone get ready, Ethnic Man had crunk up the snowblower and cleared the driveway. There went my workout. I was nearly in tears. I didn’t want to be inside, not here or at the gym. I didn’t want stale air and electronic trainers. I wanted good, old-fashioned hard work that makes you fit.
I let out a huge sigh and gazed into the street. That’s when I saw it. My neighbor left before the snow started. There was one full-size driveway completely covered in snow. No footprints, no nothin’. Bundled up, shovel in hand, pedometer in pocket, I tramped over to their property line.
Starting with the walkway to the porch, I had to make a couple trips back for a different shovel and some salt; that ice was thick! After finishing an eighth of the driveway, my heartrate was up and I had a rhythm.
I also had 7/8 of the driveway to go. You know the saying that blood is thicker than water? Well, I realize the application is misplaced, but there is no blood thicker than this consistency of snow I had to contend with today. Geez Louise!!!
Partway through this effort, it occurred to me that they may want to use their snowblower because they follow a certain method or pattern. That’s when the comedy of the situation struck me. I wasn’t shoveling their snow to be helpful in the least. I had been ripped of my workout and I used their snow instead. I took their snow. How rude! I had stolen their snow. And they are in ministry. I wasn’t there to serve or bless anyone else except my calorie burn. I took their “white stuff.” I chuckled for a while about that (with a small sense of guilt).
The smile left my face when I got to the middle of the driveway. You know, the part where you’re not sure which side to push it to, but it doesn’t matter because both sides seem so far away. I think that moment of shoveling is the seed from which the snowblower was born.
Me-thought the neighbors were away for Sunday worship and family visiting. Me-was-wrong. Just as I finished (about 40 minutes later), the garage door started to rise. The oldest son emerged. I waved, said Bye, and headed home, according to the tracker, 448 calories less than when I’d arrived.
The real choice today: I chose not to let circumstances set me off course. (DGS)
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