Yesterday was hot in Michigan. It hit 87 degrees with 87% humidity before the thunderstorm started.

We went to my parents’ house to help them with some landscaping. They live on 5-acres - about 10 miles from us. The landscaping was more akin to the work that the convicts on work release programs perform.

My Dad: “See that area over there?
Me: “The one with all of the rocks? The rocks that you made me put in there 26 years ago after my senior year in high school?
My Dad: “Yep”
Me: “What do you want done? There’s some weeds that need to be pulled, but otherwise, it looks okay”
My Dad: “I want to move all the stone to the spots I dug around the garage”
Me: “All of them?!?!”

Five and a half hours later….

Shortman: “Mom, I’m kinda dizzy”
Me: “Drink more water and go sit in the shade….we’ve only got another wheelbarrow to go”

Seriously you all - it took us nearly 6 hours to clean out that area. We moved rocks over their entire yard. The area around the garage, by the pool, to an adjacent rock pile! Today, my muscles remember that I haven’t done a workout in over a month…. (okay, so I got really lazy once I passed that 44th birthday landmark). My right elbow hurts. (Have you ever thrown 10-pound rocks for 6 hours? or maybe it was the lifting of multiple vodka-cranberry juices after we got home to make me forget how much I hurt) Shortman isn’t out of bed yet - (of course, I was out cold before the 3rd quarter started in the Pistons game last night….and don’t get me started about how they played!!!!!!!).

But, my parents are in their late 60s, and I’m the only one of their children that are still in the state. Michigan is getting bad that way. My sister is in Virginia, my brother is in Canada. Plus, it’s a great way to forget all the workweek stresses and work out some of the frustration of the damn power outage from the day before.

—- Did I mention that payment was lunch? And that mom found this burger recipe? Yum. Okay, the hugs and kisses and the burgers made it more than worthwhile —-

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