I hate winter. I never used to but now I do. It's all about the weather. We used to get snow in early December and it stayed all winter long with no rain. Not now. Nowadays we get snow that changes to rain and then freezes. A few days or a week later we get more snow that turns to rain and then refreezes again. Repeat this trend all winter long. The latest forecast is calling for 4-6 inches of snow followed by an inch to an inch and a half of rain before the bottom drops out of the thermometer and we drop into a deep freeze for a few days again. Did I mention that this leads to lots of ice on the ground? Speaking of ice there are two rectangular areas in my yard where the vehicles set that are nothing but smoooooth ice. This is so because the snow melt and rain runs under the vehicles whilst the snow builds up around them. Well last night I went out to the truck to take my son over to a friends place for the night. It was just barely below freezing so I just kept my short pants on and slipped into my sneakers. We had gotten about a half inch dusting of snow and I obviously had a lapse in memory because I forgot all about what was lying beneath that dusting of snow where my wife's car was normally parked. She was not home from work yet at the time. I was very quickly reminded of what was there mind you. On about the second step on the snow covered ice my right foot shot back causing my knee to bend and knocking me off balance. Being off balance caused my leg to then shoot sideways while my leg bent downward causing me to end up on my bare hands and bare knees on the ice and in a great deal of pain. It was at this point I was reminded that sometimes it is better to just go with the flow and take what lumps there may be rather than try and resist the inevitable. After a couple attempts I managed to get back to my feet but had to have help walking the extra mile and a half to the truck. Well OK it was only about another six feet but it seemed a LOT longer. It took three extremely painful attempts to lift my leg high enough to climb into the truck and the third attempt was only successful because I put my hand behind my knee and helped it by lifting. I made it the couple miles and back and settled in for the night. Not much sleep was gotten last night. This morning I could hardly get around. To add insult to injury the past days gastronomic delights have been wrecking havoc with my gastrointestinal tract which sometimes gives short notice of needing attention. Oh yeah....did I mention that the bathroom is upstairs. The only good thing about today is that late in the day I was able to get out for a short time to pick up some lobsters to enjoy tonight after the wife gets home from work. We try and do this at least once a year around this time when the winter lobster season is in full swing here. I don't go back to work until Thursday night so things should be better by then. I hope anyway. I pulled or tore the inside of my thigh muscle from my knee to my crotch and even around my hip bone to my back is in bad shape. Just sitting in a chair I cannot lift my right foot off the floor without extreme pain. Hopefully next time I will have the foresight to simply throw myself down and take what comes because trying to fight it sure doesn't work and I think it is actually worse in the end. I wish we could just jump from about early November straight to early March and forget about the in between part. Did I mention that I hate winter yet? Happy New Year to all and be careful. It's dangerous world out there.
