delayed reaction.....

Growing up in East Tennessee afforded me the priviledge to two things in the winter - hills and snow. (OK, I had hills in the other three seasons, too, just humor me here.) Whenever we got snow, there were hills all around that were great for riding sleds. In Middle Tennessee, we don't get alot of snow. We get more of a wintery-mix or ice.

The past two weekends, the weather forecasters told us we'd get anything from and inch to 5 inches of snow. We got around an inch or less both times. However, this past weekend there was enough to at least cover most of the grass, so I was able to get out the sleds and ride with the girls. There aren't alot of steep hills, but at the end of our cul-de-sac is the 18th fairway. There's a small hill that goes down to the fairway and eventually into a pond. Luckily, no one from our group ended up in the pond.

I took my first ride down the hill in the normal, sitting up fashion. Whee. Not alot of rush there. So I decided to go down the hill standing up on the sled. I grabbed the cord/rope on the front of the sled, kicked off the excess snow/ice from my boots, positioned my feet on the sled and started down the slope. No big deal, just like riding a skateboard. As I approached the part of the ride where the hill leveled off into the fairway, I started to slip. Attempted to right myself, I shifted my weight in the opposite direction that I was falling. But I fell anyway. Right onto the cart path. Oh, did I mention the cart path? The asphalt cart path?

When we're kids, we just fall. We don't worry about how we fall, we already know that we're going to fall, so we just fall. As adults, we do really stupid things like shifting our weight and trying to brace ourselves with our appendages.

I went down onto the cart path with my left elbow hitting first followed by my left hip. It hurt, but not too bad. I got up, surprised that the pain was so much less than I thought it would be. (Remember, this was only my second ride down the hill, so there was no way I was going in just yet.) I stayed out for about an hour more. Still, not alot of pain. No, the pain was going to wait.

That night I felt it a little more, but nothing major. Sunday morning, I felt it a little more. Sunday night, Fred Sanford could have beaten me in the 100-yard dash. A hot tub of water sounded good, but it didn't do too much for my situation. I slept with one of those heat patches around the back of my neck Sunday night.

It's Tuesday morning, and I'm doing a little better. Although there's no bruise on my hip, I'm still feeling it. The bruise on my elbow looks more like a carpet burn. The bride reminded me several times over the weekend that I just can't do these things and expect to bounce right back like I did 20 years ago. I think what she meant to say is that she looks forward to growing old with me, but it didn't come out right.....