Saturday, February 27, 2010

Puppies, Pioneers and Petticoats

Whew. I've come to the conclusion that getting a puppy is the best diet enhancer ever.

Correction, can be the best diet enhancer ever.

Three weeks ago I became the proud momma of a little terrier mix. His name is Wally. Here he is in all his puppy splendor:



But this is what he really looks like (sans flash). A big pile of adorable, but ceaseless energy.



Now, I live on the third floor of my apartment building, and while Wally has been relatively good about being obiedient going up and down the stairs, I still have to lug my butt up and down those stairs a good five to seven times a day to take him outside. Of course I also live at the top of a relatively steep hill, and no matter which way I walk him I have to inevitably trudge back up the hill on the way back home. It's like doing a real life stairmaster all day long.

It may sound like I don't like this daily workout, that I begrudgingly take the pupper out and back in while whining like a brat about the forced exercise and sub-zero temperatures. Not true! As ridiculous as this actually sounds, my body has been getting slowly and surely stronger. I no longer huff and puff walking up the stairs, and I can actually feel the muscles in my lower and upper body tightening.

This makes me think of the pioneers (Whoa incontinuity!!!). Yes, the pioneers. Sometimes, in my freezing delusional haze I think about how they were constantly moving, lifting, climbing, utilizing their bodies in ways that we don't even really consider because we have every lazy-making technology available to us.

It probably doesn't hurt that I live in a restored mansion likely from the Civil-war era and when I walk up to the house I think that I am a' returnin' home from taking the animals for their daily exercise. I consider how hard that daily farm life must've been in petticoats and have a new appreciation for my female ancestors. (Boots and petticoats, fashionable and utilitarian! Someone should really consider bringing that look back. Side note: I'd love to see a 'pioneer' fashion show by Versace. Mark my words, it's only a matter of time my friends...) The rooster crows, and it's time to milk the cows! Oh boy, excercise may be making me delusional.

But it's also making my butt look better.

3 comments:

  1. I love it when I can find exercise in every day tasks! When the hubby and I first got our dog Vinnie, we had to go down lots of stars to take him for walks, too. Now, we've got a dog door and he and Daisy just let themselves out when they need to go. I don't get as much exercise, but at least I don't have to get out of my snuggie and into the Wintery coldness as often! (Ok, that's a lie, I don't have a snuggie. But if I did, I'd be pissed that I'd have to get out of it.)

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  2. I don't have a Snuggie either! But I tell people I do all the time! I wonder why that is....

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  3. I think it probably has something to do with the fact that it's easier to type "sittin' around in my snuggie" than it is to type "sittin' around under a blanket". Plus, it's a funny visual. For those of us shooting for comedy in our writing, you can't get much funnier than the word "snuggie". ;)

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