Testing the Waters

This blog post is slightly, maybe months, late. Sorry. The above picture is the result of a night of sledding. I would just like for my audience to know that Tim is usually a very good-looking man.

A really bad poem/song written by me to summarize our sledding experience:

Tim and Liz went up the hill to fetch another sled.

Liz fell down and Tim broke his nose,

And the rest of us went tumbling after!

Backtrack:

Ok, so Tim didn't ACTUALLY break his nose. We'll get to his torn-up face towards the end of the story. But Liz really did fall down...more than several times.

The hill behind our apartment is one that even Jack and Jill wouldn't attempt. And for some reason we found it necessary to sled down this steep, slippery slope, which led directly to the lake. The only chance you had of stopping was hitting the large rocks that surround the body of water (please see post "Boredom" for more rock details). And chances were, the rocks would not stop you, they would only hurt and ramp you at the same time.

To ensure our safety, the boys wandered pretty far out onto the lake, tools in hand (which Nathan got at a garage sale...safe), and dug an ice-fishing hole to catch us some dinner while we were having fun. Determining that the ice was at least 6 inches deep (some of my male readers at this point are wishing they were like ice), the boys told me to call up Liz and Brian. For those of you who don't know Brian, he is probably twice your height and weight (but don't be fooled, he can swim like a freakin fish). Brian had convinced himself that the ice would not hold his body weight and he would end up in the middle of the frigid lake water. But Liz came over in true 'Oakland City' form in her hunting-style hot orange overalls and shoes that were far from snowboots. I caught this video after a few good runs down the hill by the boys, Sarah, and Liz. This is the evidence that Liz should have listened to Stacy when she tried to throw these non-grip shoes out of Liz's closet last year!

Once each of our butts had four bruises (each cheek) from the rocks that we were continuously hitting at the bottom of the hill, we all thought it would be a great idea to head to another area of the lake. We walked as far as we thought necessary to an area that looked like the snow ran smoothly from the top of the lake to the middle of the lake. We were convinced there were no rocks in this area. (Please keep in mind that the snow was so deep at this point that it would have been impossible to see a rock that was 2 feet in diameter. Also, it was nighttime--pitch black) So as we all stared at each other waiting to see who volunteered to go first, of course it was Tim who came running up behind us, said, "I'LL GO!" and threw himself belly down, head-first onto the sled and down the hill.

The other four of us watched from the top with high hopes for this new sledding spot. DOWN...DOwn...down...he went until BOOM! A sound rang through the air that made the other four of us wince. There were, in fact, no rocks; however, the way the snow had settled on the hill and lake did not allow us to see from the top of the hill that there was approximately a three foot drop between the land and water level. Tim had soared into the air for a split second before landing face-down, belly-down, spread-eagle onto the snow covered ice. This gave him three decent sized gashes down the center of his face, aaaaaand we decided to keep on moving around the lake to find a new spot.

Trekking through the snow and up and down the hill finally got the best of us and we headed back to the apartment to warm up. It was an awesome winter night, Tim's face is finally healing, and Brian came over to pick up Liz so we got to tell him all about what he missed out on!