The Fall-Ice on the Driveway-2018

Before I begin my story, let me say that I am not hurt. Also, feel free to laugh at me and not with me! Sometimes you just do stupid things! The story begins Thursday night when I decided to load the car for our weekend trip to Tallulah Gorge. After all the snow and ice, I thought the warmer temps had melted everything in our yard and driveway! I was wrong!

I had packed all of our hiking stuff in two back packs and for my first trip to the car I threw both back packs over my shoulder! This turned out to be a very good thing! As I went out the back door and rounded the house, I glanced down and saw a pile of ice about 6 feet from the house where the gutter spout on the corner of the house is broken. I thought that was pretty cool, but my brain said, don’t step on that ice, step around it on the brown area that just looked wet! Now, my brain must have shut down because it was 23 degrees and there wouldn’t be any water. My brain didn’t register that for several minutes.

As my left foot hit the brown spot on the driveway, it was like a scene from a cartoon! My right foot tried to move forward and then hit the brown spot too! Then both left the ground and so did I! It was like time stopped for a minute! As I flew up in the air, I had a momentary thought that I was about to die! I hung there for a moment and then came crashing down! I hit the ground on my back like a ton of brinks! My head popped back and forth like a rubber band. Finally, the world stopped moving!

As I lay on my back on the ice, I accessed the damage! My neck hurt, but not too bad. My wrist was sore, but again not too bad! I then realized that what had saved me from more damage was the book bags! One was full of water and the other my hiking kit. I had landed on both. I rubbed the back of my head and found no blood or bone. The backpacks had kept my head from hitting the ground! As I lay there with my rear end getting colder as the ice soaked through my clothes, I had another problem!

I was laying on my back looking up at the broken gutter spout and noticed half a dozen icicles hanging down! All I could think of was A Christmas Story where the mom says that people are killed by icicles! I wanted to get up, but then I realized there was another issue. When I fell, I landed in the middle of an 8-foot square of ice! Every time I tried to move, I just slid a little on the ice! I couldn’t get a grip on anything!
I had my phone in my pocket and I started to call Phyllis or the kids but I was afraid they would come running out and hit the ice and fall too! I finally figured out what to do! Swim for it! By moving both my arms and legs I created enough motion to start sliding! I only moved an inch or two every time I swung my hands and feet, but I moved! It took about 15 minutes, but I finally reached the edge of the ice!

Once I pulled myself off the ice, I finally was able to stand up! I checked my body again for any damage and other that a few aches and pains, there was no major damage! I was soaking wet from the ice and cold, but I wasn’t dead so that was a very good thing! I loaded the bags in the car and went back in the house! The kids and Phyllis heard my story and after making sure I was okay, tried not to laugh! Yes, it was a little funny after telling the story! So, it’s okay to laugh! Picturing it in my head, I had to laugh myself! I managed to load the rest of the stuff in the car and we had a great weekend trip! I did however, avoid walking in the driveway again! I went through the basement from that point on!