Snow and ice--such fun

After five days of being basically snowed in following our local ice storm that left a solid coating of ice everywhere (including on my steep driveway), I decided on Saturday that ice be damned, I was going out. So I opened my door and hopped outside on my crutches. (Yeah, still having a few leg problems right now.) The first thing that I noticed was that neither crutch nor my remaining foot dug in at all. Then I noticed that it was slippery as hell, and I immediately slipped and began to spin in a circle as my foot and two crutches fought for a grip. Finally I was able to punch a crutch through the ice and stop spiralling around like some sort of demented top. Better late then never, I remembered my Yak Trax from my time in Alaska. These wonderful slip-on traction-boosters (Thanks Liz!) clamp onto the bottom of a shoe or boot and bite into the toughest ice. With one on my remaining foot, I was able to walk without slipping all the way down my steep iced driveway to my vehicle down at the bottom. Being a 4wd, it dug itself out in short order and I was off.

Yeah, Yak Trax are great on snow and ice. But on the tiles at 7-11...not so good. I walked into the 7-11 and said "Hi, everyone!" since I know them all there, and my first step off the floor mats brought the Yak Trax into contact with the wet tile and down I went with a big bang, crutches flying through the air and my faithful H&K P7 slamming into my side just below my ribs. (Thanks, little buddy!) Of course everyone came running over. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah", I managed to groan. "I'm good. I just wanted this newspaper here on the bottom of the rack. And a cheap lawyer if anyone knows one." So I left the 7-11 with a new understanding of Yak Trax physics and a slightly sore back. but I was still glad to be out after being boxed up in the lair since Monday. And I'm glad that Lagniappe wasn't in the vehicle to see me fall. That's be all I need--his Nelson Muntz "Ha-ha!" on top of everything else.
But Saturday's escape was a good dry run for Sunday morning, because I haven't missed church since coming home after my incident last year and I'm not going to let something as petty as an ice storm keep me from going.