Old Salt,

Good point. The very best "weight training" or exercise actually gets something accomplished, whether it's cutting and splitting wood, digging another hole for my grandfather, who used to order me around just because he could, or building a deck.

My extended family is having a Steps competition (teams go for extended walks and count steps for the week, loser pays up) as a way to improve the overall health of some of the members. I was giving my little wife some grief, because she's lagging and my team is getting its arse kicked, and I told her: "Your Portuguese ancestors would be ashamed."

And she replied: "If it were scouting the grapes, tending the goats on the hill or even hiking along with a basket on the head, the Manuels and Joakims of my family would be proud of me. They wouldn't have understood walking with no destination."

Kypaddler