*I apparently never actually posted this. I blame the ice! Last Tuesday we were hit by a rather nasty ice storm. They were predicting that it had the potential to be as bad as the one in 1979, which I happen to remember thank you very much. Didn't get as much snow as predicted but got enough ice to keep us home for almost a week. We were one of the lucky ones that didn't loose power (for very long) and thankfully we had been to the grocery store so were ok on the food supplies. I am not graceful in the snow. I happen to look like some strange penguin waddling carefully about in the snow. I expect to slip and fall. I don't like it, but it is a fact of life, so I tend to be prepared for it. Now, we have dogs. We walk our dogs on leashes before we go to bed for the night - mainly because neither of us wants to be standing outside for hours on end waiting for the dogs to finally decide that they hear us calling them. Tuesday evening was no different from any other evening...the dogs needed to go out. I am not a stupid woman. I knew that there would be ice on our deck, and that said ice would be on the stairs. I also knew that dogs on leashes while walking on ice covered stairs could possibly be a bad bad thing. The hubby took Pinkerton, the bigger of the two dogs and carefully made his way down the steps where they stopped and waited patiently in the herb garden for Lucy and I. Lucy is a small beagle/bassett mix, about 7 months old, and full of energy. Lucy decided she was not crazy about ice. I carefully followed along as she skittered about on the ice covered deck. Then Lucy met the stairs. Not good. Lucy kind of skittered, slipped, and splat her way down the steps. In my zeal to 'save' her, I came to the realization that I too was about to perform my own 'splat'. In an attempt to 'save' myself, I decided to sit down on the step. Bad bad move. I remember sitting down. I remember thinking 'oh shit'. I remember the world suddenly spinning. I remember thinking 'oh shit, that hurt.' Somewhere in the midst of all this I heard the hubby yelling 'Watch your head!' as the world spun around a few more times. Next thing I knew, I was in the middle of the yard on my back thinking 'wow, that was cool' followed by 'ow ow ow f#&k ow'. Then I started laughing. It is extremely hard to get up off one's backside when one is laughing on ice. I realized that the hubby and both dogs were looking down at me with great interest. "Are you ok?" asked the hubby. (The dogs were trying to figure out if this was some kind of new game, and if so were there any treats involved.) "Yes, I'm fine." I giggled. After some effort we managed to get me upright and continued on with our evening 'constitutional'. I am happy to say I only landed on my ass 3 more times that evening. I'd like to say that I managed to remain nimble and on my feet for the rest of the week, but alas that is not so. I have fallen every freakin' time we have taken the dogs out. Leash or no leash. I think from now on I may just roll around in the snow when taking the dogs out. It might be safer. The hubby thinks I will just roll into a tree. Damn him, he is probably right.