I spent most of today, Saturday, replacing a six foot garden fence. It's a hard and quite taxing physical task. Two of my sons helped me but it was still quite demanding - removing the old fence and various vegetation like ivy that had grown over the fence. Then digging holes, cementing in fencing posts and nailing the fence panels to the posts.
As I concentrated on this physical task which still has some skill involved - the posts have to be straight and the fencing parallel - it struck me what a contrast it was to my working week sitting at a desk driving a laptop or attending meetings and giving legal advice or negotiating contracts.
And I decided despite the hard work that this is really a good thing. The contrast makes you forget your work issues - you have to concentrate on not hitting your thumb with a hammer of having the old fence fall on you (it only happened once and I was unhurt!). The physical exercise is good too. We were simply not designed to sit at computers all day.
I am not sure I would want to make a career of fencing, but as an occasional and completely different activity doing something like this is rewarding - especially at the end of the day when you stand back and admire your work and the fence is still standing and pretty much straight. I am however now going to really enjoy a glass of wine.
As I concentrated on this physical task which still has some skill involved - the posts have to be straight and the fencing parallel - it struck me what a contrast it was to my working week sitting at a desk driving a laptop or attending meetings and giving legal advice or negotiating contracts.
And I decided despite the hard work that this is really a good thing. The contrast makes you forget your work issues - you have to concentrate on not hitting your thumb with a hammer of having the old fence fall on you (it only happened once and I was unhurt!). The physical exercise is good too. We were simply not designed to sit at computers all day.
I am not sure I would want to make a career of fencing, but as an occasional and completely different activity doing something like this is rewarding - especially at the end of the day when you stand back and admire your work and the fence is still standing and pretty much straight. I am however now going to really enjoy a glass of wine.
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