Back Hurts, but Faith in Simple Machines Confirmed

OK, so my back (arms, legs, neck, etc.) is/are mega-sore. The previous owner of my house thought it was a good idea to bury a bunch of large slate slabs right next to the garage, a couple of inches underneath the soil. We did not realize this until Friday afternoon, after I started to pull up one tiny little piece of rock that was sticking up. The ♥G♥ wants to plant some flowers and stuff along the side of the garage; The end result was use of several of the classic simple machines (lever, wedge, inclined plane) to move six of the big bastards elsewhere. Fortunately, I'm a David Macaulay fan.

Then yesterday, I went to help my friends move to their new house 20 minutes up the highway. There were several other move-helpers as well. This entailed many of the same principles of simple machines, as well as the same brute exertions. The lever/wedge principles also worked well in my first (and successful!) attempt at breaking into a locked car. (Don't ask.)

Let me just mention this: If you are enlisted to help someone move, and there are multiple hundred-pound-plus pieces of furniture getting shoved around, it is really not a very good idea to bring along your infants and toddlers. As a friend of mine who was not present for the moving asked, "Why bring a nun to a poker game?"