After last weekend, I thought I had survived just about everything January had to throw at us.
Yes, I survived the Blizzard of 2016. And all the shoveling that followed.
But I almost didn't
make it through the great thaw.
I spend a lot of time in this space poking fun at the TV and radio weather folks, who seemed to spend an in ordinate amount of time last week warning us about "icy spots" on our morning commute.
The problem was I never seemed to encounter any.
At least in my car.
What I didn't count on was encountering some on my weekend walk.
Let me explain. My wife and I are die-hard walkers. Every Saturday and Sunday, we go for an hour walk on the path that winds its way through our development. Our homeowners' association - or someone - took a snow blower and made a single path along the blacktopped trail. They even did little cut-outs at each intersection so we didn't have to climb over the massive snow banks created by the plows that cleared the streets.
Saturday I managed to get by just fine. Sunday morning was a different story.
We came to one of the cutouts at an intersection. Each intersection we came to had fresh evidence of the warmer temperatures, melting snow. Sunday morning was not as cold as Saturday, but it was still plenty cold enough to create ice where some of the snow had melted, in particular at these intersections.
I was in the lead as we approached one of the cut-outs about three-quarters of the way through our walk. I put one sneak out into the street and hit a sheet of ice. The next thing I knew both legs were straight out in the air and was I was headed for a fall. By instinct I stuck out my hand to break the fall. Yes, I am aware that this is exactly what they tell you not to do because of the danger of breaking your wrist. As soon as I hit the pavement, I immediately felt some pain in my right wrist.
Luckily, I didn't break anything, except for maybe my self-confidence.
I turned 60 a few months ago. Now I've encountered the bane of ever "senior." A nasty fall.
I was probably more embarrassed than hurt. It was a pretty nasty shot to my pride. Here I managed to shovel out 30 inches of snow, and then take a nasty tumble while out for a walk.
Oh, well. Bring on February.
They say it's going to be in the 60s on Wednesday.
That should go a long way toward melting off a lot more of this snow.
Just watch out for those icy patches.
They're out there, take my word for it.
One had my name on it this weekend.
Here's the full forecast.
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