A Clean Sweep

I remember watching my grandmother use a broom. I liked to watch her sweep. It's not the fact that she was working but I watched as the straw broom cleared a path as it went along powered by her hands. I thought about this while I was sweeping off the front porch. I thought "who sweeps anymore?"

The husband was using the 100ft extension cord in his house renovation. I had to use the broom.
 I have an electric blower and he has a gas powered one that I can never get started or if I do, I'm so exhausted from all that effort, so I don't use his. I went out and bought myself an electric one that I keep on the front porch with a long extension cord, the same one he is using now. 

During one of his intermissions, he had trimmed the gardenia bushes along the front of the porch and pulled some weeds from the walk way leading to the porch. The cuttings, dirt and weeds littered the porch and the walk. 

I found the broom. A nice heavy duty industrial type that is quite  heavy and quite unused. I remember the old broom which was worn down to the nubs. That broom must have been around here for 20 years. Maybe it was used before the blower era. 

 I went on a broom buying binge and ended up with a push broom, a straw broom and a tapered synthetic broom, none of which have seen much use. The push broom is in the shed. It never gets used either. The air compressor has an attachment that works wonderfully to blow out all the debris from the wood shavings and grass clippings that the mower drops off when parked in the shed.

Who sweeps? Though it bought back memories of watching my grandmother use a broom, I'll take the easy way and find another extension cord for that blower. It was much more entertaining watching my grandmother then it was pushing that broom myself. I've matured into the age of "quick and easy". The era where we have to sign a gym membership to keep those unused muscles from turning to flab. My grandmother never had "bat wings" nor a gym membership. She did squats while pulling weeds and gathering vegetables from her garden. She loaded that wringer washer and lifted those water soaked clean clothes to run them  through the wringer and into the rinse water then repeated the same to wring the water out and load them into the clothes basket. She carried those wet clothes to the clothes line and hung them out to dry. I don't remember her ever complaining of back pain.
Her arms were toned by that broom, and the rest of her body by the  vegetable garden and laundry chores. 
Who has time for this workout? She was a "stay at home" mom as most women were then. I might need to find a gym membership. I'm not in good enough shape to push a broom for any length of time and I haven't done a squat to pick up anything in years. My laundry is done by an automatic machine though I do use my clothes line occasionally which doesn't qualify me for any credits to being in shape.

I'm off to watch the husband finish up the soffits and the fascia. I'm good at watching.