My eldest son loves hoses, sprinklers, pools, water features, really anything that has to do with a manmade source or tool for water. Today we went online looking at various water/gardening devices and found this: http://www.no-crank.com/, the no reel hose reel which ingeniously uses water pressure to self reel the hose with the flip of a switch. My son and I loved it and ate it up, with me wondering how I could justify the expense to my wife and myself. It wasn’t until I read several of the testimonies that logic sank in.
Many of the testimonies on the site wether real or not mentioned that the no-crank hose reel saved them from the laborious chore of reeling a hose. Others mentioned that they had a bad back and couldn’t lift a hose and some testimonies painted the person as lazy. While reading these I though that this type of work was good for people, something that I will enjoy and get something out of. I figured that the no-crank hose reel would be neat to have, save me some labor(but not time) and would prevent me from getting some exercise.
I then wondered how many things in my life were there to save me time and effort but ultimately hindered me from staying in shape.
Here a few of the things on my list:
Car: Do I really need to drive 1 km to get groceries?
Segway: I don’t owe one but please shoot me if I ever step on this to travel 5 km/hour instead of walking!
My automated sprinklers: I know in the long run they save water, but I should get out and do a little watering/gardening more often.
Snow Blower: I had a snow blower but I gave it to my dad. There is no workout like shoveling snow after a large storm.
Nintendo Wii: Come on, get out and play tennis instead of doing it with a computer!
Lawn mower: I switched to a manual reel mower and it's tough to cut the grass but satisfying for the ears, lungs and soul.
It was neat that while thinking about this, Patrick sent an email letting Tanya and I in on this: http://www.jumpsnap.com/. The reason that people don’t want to jump rope? “It’s too damned hard!”. No doubt and that’s the point.
Maybe we should all look at those things in our lives that were supposed to make it easier for us, but are actually killing us slowly and throw them out – just don’t use the automated, extra easy, super quiet trash compactor to do it.
See you soon.
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I was in the countryside last week and witnessed an 81 year old "retired" man I was staying with lifting huge baskets of vegetables, digging deep furrows by hand, and spending all day out in the fields without a word of complaint.
I asked him if it was easy for him because he'd been a farmer his whole life and his body knew the actions so deeply.
He laughed and said, "A farmer!? I'm not a farmer, I was a lumberjack for 40 years. This is just a hobby."
We urban dwellers are mere shadows of our ancestors.
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