Going down....

Oh man, what a start to the week. Sunday night my family took me out for dinner to celebrate my birthday, and when we got home, I slipped on a piece of tracked-in ice and fell down the stairs. It wouldn't have been so bad if I had landed on my well-padded derriere; but I landed on my rib cage, up high on my back. Quite took the wind out of my sails. After a miserable night in which no position was comfortable, I went to the doctor's on Monday. She checked me out and (hurrah!) gave me drugs. At least now I can sleep, and Advil seems to do the daytime well enough, so I'm back at work today, easing into my chair and planning to stay there all day. I hate to fall, that awful sensation before you hit, knowing it's going to hurt. Only thing worse is being tossed off my horse; there's plenty of time to reflect on how I'm too old to be doing this >again<. And it's so much further down, too. Then after you get dumped, you're laying there in an ignomonius heap, listening to the retreating hoofbeats and knowing that you still have a loose horse to catch, get back on, and ride home. Makes 4 wheelers look really attractive (the only time they are).

Of course, when I was 24 I got thrown off a horse and didn't need to worry about catching him. I was in an arena, and he broke two vertebrae in my spine. I laid there, reflecting on the general unfairness of life; then I got in the ambulance and found out my future lay in body casts and braces for the next several months. When I could finally ride again, I was so petrified my teeth chattered. My horse (not the one that dumped me), bless him, seemed to understand my fear, and never put a foot awry. I kept him until he was an old old horse, moved him to WV, and eventually had him put down due to illness, but he's the one I think of when I reflect on California days. I even rode him in a parade in downtown San Francisco, stepping over cable car tracks and being unfazed by balloons, noisemakers, marching bands and every scary thing you can think of. I used to wash his mane and tail and then blow-dry them -- he was a palomino and that white mane and tail needed regular shampoos. I'd use a vacuum cleaner on him too. Amazing animal.

The forecasts for this last weekend were way off, thankfully. We got a mere 2 inches of snow and no ice to speak of, rather than the 10-12 that were forecast. I still can't drive the Miata, as our road is still icy and slippery, but the son is still unemployed and his is a 4-wheel drive so I'm set for now. The way my back feels, I don't think I could get in and out of the Miata anyway, which you don't so much get in as put on. Add to that the rear wheel drive, and it's a non-starter in the winter. Probably why, at nearly three years old, it has 14,000 miles on it. What can I say? I like Miatas. This is my third.