When Jean’s husband, Mike,  needed help moving their “stuff” from one storage shed to another, he asked if we would help.  Yea right–this could be dangerous—do we look like our names are Penske?

Sunday afternoon, with our bad backs in tow,  we headed to storage area number one and loaded the first huge cart full of “indescribable” treasures.  Just as I was assuring Jean that I knew how to steer this monster cart, I slightly over compensated on a turn and nicked the corner of a wall.  Rakes, brooms and mops flew, we laughed so hard we almost wet our pants.  Mike was not impressed or compassionate.  He had that, “Oh crap, we’ll never get this done”, look on his face.  Buzz kill!

We finished the day in fine shape, mission accomplished.  The next morning Mike asked Jean to please try and find the truck that had hit him on Sunday.  Jean and I felt great.  Here are a few lifting tips that we think saved us.  (These are also good to think about when picking up grandkids .)

• We squared up with the boxes we were lifting and got as close to the object as we could.
• We got a good grip before the actual lift.
• We used our bent legs and our arms, NOT OUR BACKS.
• We looked up, toward the ceiling, before we lifted.
• We didn’t arch our backs and we kept the load close to our bodies.
• We stayed hydrated.
• We laughed frequently and for no good reason.
• We (she) made a pledge to pitch most of the crap that we had just moved.  (Praise the Lord!)

We made the afternoon fun and celebrated our accomplishment with margaritas.  Maybe that is the truck that Mike is looking for.