Dad Lore- Number 2

 

These are all "weird flex" tales- moments of pride or an oddly presented compliment that were in anomalous situations, or unlikely manners.

All three happened after I had moved into my condo and was still young, but established at work.

The title comes from Anabelle referring to anything from my past she hasn't heard about as "Dad Lore."

Click here for the first

Here's the second.

After my American Gladiators inspired fitness in college, I continued running when I could, (weather and injuries permitting). However, for graduation my folks gave me a elastic band resistance powered weight bench.

Eventually they all broke, and the room it was in became a nursery, but with that equipment and some free weights, I continued lifting regularly and frequently through my twenties. 

I retained a fair amount of physical power as I continued to progress in my career. 

This took place well before I reached the age where everything hurt and I needed to focus on Cardiac related exercise. 

A couple of the younger guys and I went out to "lunch" one day.

A large part of the reason for the trip was to show each other various comic book stores in the area. This was convenient as served as a reminder of Funnybooks' existence after the great comic book crash in the Nineties when eighty percent of the comic book shops I frequented closed (translation, all of them except Steve's) while I was away on vacation. 

The other reason, was one of the guys asked for help getting  a dresser upstairs in his house. 

We addressed this issue after the shopping trips.

The two of them were on either side of the unwieldy peice of furniture, and I was behind and mostly underneath it. 

We were sliding it up the stairs, with some difficulties due to size, friction, and the fact that the three of us didn't fit on the stairs around it. 

Also, being young, healthy and stupid... we left the drawers in.

As we finally got it near the landing, we were losing our collective grip.

The dresser started to slide back down, leading a lot of yelling and us scrambling backwards along with it.

There were three issues with this.

In order of importance:

1) We spent a lot of time in the comic book stores and were already late getting back to work.

2) I was behind it. 

3) There was no way I wanted to hoist that thing up the stairs a second time.

Therefore, I braced by weightlifting enhanced legs below me, and (laying face down on the steps) military pressed the dresser the rest of the way up, yelling, 

"I AM NOT DOING THIS AGAIN!" 

They grabbed it and shifted it to the landing as it peaked.

While we were all laying on the ground catching our breath, 

one of the younger engineers exclaimed,

"Holy crap! You're strong, Jeff."

Click here for the Third Dad Lore tale.