Monday, September 26, 2011

Heavy Lifting

I think that Peter Griffin is one of the wisest men that I know. Whenever I face the tough questions in life, I turn to him to dispense his witty brand of sage advice. Advice forged in the fires of life. Take Peter's counsel regarding lifting heavy loads:

"The key is to put it all in your groin and your back, take your legs totally out of the equation. Lift with your lower back in a jerking, twisting motion."

I can still picture Peter's reaction in the scene when he tries to lift that car. Just watching him writhe on the ground in a jerking, twisting motion ... Anyway, I would bet that I have made you smile with this. You might even be saying to yourself, "Even a corn nugget knows to lift with your legs and to protect your back." In fact just the other day at work I took part in a safety lecture about proper lifting techniques. The most important rule, what experts might term, rule #1, is to get someone else to do the lifting.

So, anyhow, the very same evening as I had attended the safety lecture about lifting, I had to work out in the yard to remove a tree stump. After a good 30 minutes of concerted effort, I decided to put my glass of juice down and actually go outside and get started on the job. I then worked to completely tear up my lawn and finally had removed as many of the roots as I could see. I then was faced with a 100 lb stump blob to rip from the ground. So, I bent over at the waist and heaved and/or yanked with everything that I had. I then found myself writhing on the ground with a messed up back after following Peter's advice to the letter. This was definitely a case of life imitating art.