In the past three years, I’ve done several remodeling/upgrade projects that have required me to work in the crawl space under this house. The upside is that it’s probably the “nicest” crawl space I’ve worked in: the entire area is covered with tar paper, it’s dry and relatively clean, and high enough that I can almost sit up in the space between the floor joists.

The downside is that it’s still crawl space.

In some areas it’s just, you know, “crawl.” But with gas lines, drain lines and ductwork, there’s a lot of bear crawl and some belly crawl. It wouldn’t have been fun when I was one-fourth of my current age. At sixty-five, it’s somewhat aggravating and definitely body ache inducing. All that twisting, turning, bending, stretching, rolling and reaching is mighty effective at defining what parts of my body are not used to that sort of thing. Which includes most of the parts between the top of my head and the bottom of my feet.

Along with the soreness, it’s actually pretty good conditioning for the slower parts of the mud runs I enjoy doing. You know, the crawling through tunnels, slogging through mud pits, that sort of thing. If I would just spend a little more time planning out my home improvement projects, I could arrange it so they would coincide with Warrior Dash, Conquer the Gauntlet, LandRush and Burden Dayz.

That way, I’d get double benefit out of the training and the remodeling.

Kind of like scheduling your next aggravation on the road to coincide with your next frustration at work. That way you can get those patience and forgiveness muscles really stretched out and limbered up. All set for holiday shopping!

H. Arnett
12/7/18