Work Day

Today's weather was crazy! One minute it was pouring down rain and blowing so hard I felt like I was getting knocked over. The next minute it was bright and sunny.

Jan and I today tackled the rest of the weeds and thorn bushes. We had about half the section left and had only been working for a bit when the weather had one of its mood swings and forced us to retreat to the barn. I helped pull some metal staples out of some cardboard boxes that she was going to use in her garden. Of course after we got set up in the barn doing this the sky cleared to a beautiful blue and the sun came out. Needless to say, we had already started another job so that had to be finished before going back out to the bushes.

For some reason, I felt like time flew by today while I worked. It wasn't long before Jan had to leave to get ready for her choir practice, but I wanted to finish was we had started so I worked alone for a while until it started raining so bad again I had to call it a day. Working alone gave me some time to think. It is one of the things I had always loved about being a janitor -working hard physically and letting your mind wander and tune out and think things over. I hardly notice how sore my shoulders get or muddy I am while I am working because I think my mind goes to a different place and I go into robot-mode.

Today I thought about how great it was to be outside, sweating and working hard. There is something very satisfying about physical labor. You get to see the result of all your hard work. You clear bushes or build a pile or do whatever it is you are doing. At the end of the day you are dead tired, but you feel good because you accomplished something and your body was active. And you probably fixed something/did something that improved your life, yard, home, etc. Definitely it is not the same accomplished feeling I get after spending 10 hours typing a research paper. Maybe I feel the same sense of accomplishment when I see a finished magazine with my article and byline, but that is so far removed from the actual work process sometimes that I forget what I even wrote about. It makes me realize why people love to garden or work on their homes in their spare time, especially if they work a desk job all day. I have come to the conclusion that 90% of what I do with my job and school is done on the computer and it is quite frustrating to realize how tied in I am to technology. That is the beauty of SuBAMUH for me. It is my salvation this spring that allows me to be outside and experience the sun -or the rain- and unplug myself from the world.