Friday, June 04, 2010

An Aching Back?


The new tenants arrived around noon yesterday. An hour before their arrival a semi-trailer with their belongings pulled up in front of the house, fresh from Iowa.  You see it here.

 I signed for the goods and off went the driver who promised to return in five hours to pick up his trailer.  In other words, the trailer had to be emptied by then or else.  Okay, fine.  Easy for him to say.

The "kids" arrived an hour later.  Kids, defined as being fresh out of college, wet behind the ears, dumb as a fencepost when it comes to how the world really works.  But that's okay.  We were all there at one time or another in this life.

I get ready to leave the chore of unloading the trailer to the "kids" when I realize there's no ramp to walk everything down to street level.  All of it has to be handed from trailer to someone below.  Normally that's no big deal except for the half dozen or more heavy pieces of furniture in the trailer.  Two strong men (or women) were needed for that.  Then I eyed a motorcyle in the corner of the trailer.

Me:  How did you plan on getting that down without a ramp?

Him:  I made this little wooden ramp.  I thought I could ride the bike down it.

Well, that was pure fantasy on his part.  It was apparent that once on the little ramp one or two things would occur:  The ramp would snap from the weight of the bike OR, the top of the ramp would come loose off the get go sending the bike and its rider on a quick trip to the street.  Both would definitely cause injury to the rider and major damage to the bike.

I knew it would not be right to leave without first lending a hand.  There was no way the two of them could unload the trailer by 5 let alone handle the heavy pieces without my help.  So I stayed.

Me:  I'm going to back my truck up to the trailer.  The tailgate will be close to the level of the floor.  Together we'll slowly guide the bike into the bed of the truck.  Then I'll back into the driveway with the rear wheels set at the lowest part the incline (or in the gutter).  That will put the tailgate of the truck a couple of feet from the sidewalk.  Then we can use your little ramp to get the bike off of the back of the truck.

Him:  Okay, fine.  Let's do it.

So we did.  Worked like a charm.  That's what old dog experience brings to difficult situations.

I stayed for a time to unload each of the heaviest items from the truck that in no way would have been possible for the two "kids" to do alone.  No way.  You should know even at that it took everything this old boy and the "kid" had to unload those half dozen or more items and put them in the house.   At one point the "kid" started panting.  I started laughing for I wasn't anywhere near the "panting" point of moving this one piece.  "I'm the one who should be panting!  Come on, man up, let's go!", I said.  I loved it.

After all of the lifting yesterday I honestly thought my back would be out of whack this morning.  Worse yet, that I would not be able to get out of bed.  That's what I thought.

This morning came and I'm definitely good to go.  No aches.  No pains.  Not bent over.  Bob's feels like he can unload another semi.  Would someone please put on the theme from Rocky cause I'm ready to roll!

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Whiskeytown Lake, Very Northern California, United States