Ice Ice Baby

WHUMP!

"Are you okay?" the lady walking in front of me turned and enquired.

"Um, I think so."

Yup. I confirmed it. I was in fact on the ground.

I looked about the icy sidewalk and swore under my breath.

I couldn't believe it. This morning I had survived the worst ice conditions our city had seen in decades. Buses were canceled. Highways and rural schools closed. Traffic lights malfunctioned. But I had driven, albeit slowly, into work that morning unscathed save for an uncontrolled slide straight through a stop sign at the top of our street.

While the radio DJ reported tales of cars and even gravel trucks plunging into ditches, I sat safely in my office sipping hot coffee, proud I had made the journey many had decided simply not to undertake.

Until I LEFT work that is. My guard down now that the freezing rain had turned into regular rain, I was stunned and embarassed to find myself laying on the sidewalk outside the ER.

Walking on a skating rink
And as I winced at my battered knee, all I could think of was

"Crap! I better not have to go back inside Emerg... I haven't shaven my legs in a long, long time."

21 People would rather be commenting:

Cupcake Blonde said...

I would have had the same exact thought. Actually recently I got a massage on the fly and all I could think of while laying on the table was "Oh no! My legs are still hairy!" I couldn't enjoy the massage at all.

I hope you didn't get seriously hurt. Ice is the devil.

Irene said...

Ha ha, you women who have to shave your legs are so funny, always having to worry about excess hair when your leg may be broken or Prince Charming may sweep you off your feet. I only occasionally have a stray hair on my legs and I can pull it out with my fingers, and it is blond so it hardly show.If you had never started shaving, you wouldn't have had this problem. Now you have constant stubble.

I hope you are okay, Maureen.

Daisy said...

Being embarrassed is much worse than being hurt! I hope you are okay.

Bruce Johnson said...

T.M.I.......let me guess, you probably don't have clean underwear either......

JoJo said...

Oh Maureen, I hope you are OK....are you feeling it today?

My mom used to do the "mom thing" and tell me to always wear clean undies in case I was in an accident. I told her that if I was in an accident, chances are I'd pee myself so what difference did it make? lol

Karen MEG said...

Ouch, I hope you're okay Maureen. Slips can be so nasty!

I remember thinking the same thing when ski patrol checked my knee out when I twisted it... I was so upset that I hadn't had a pedi. Nothing like have a nice young man checking out the Sahara-cracked epidermis on the gams in the dead of winter LOL!

Jen said...

That is precisely why I shave my legs on a regular basis. It's like wearing clean underpants in case I have an accident. Can't help it my brought me up right.

Anonymous said...

I have experienced the unshaven legs embarrassment when I had an emergency appendectomy. I was mortified the next day when I realized. Nobody cared but me.

It's a pride thing. A girl's just gotta have a little. Falling on ice sort of screws all that up for us.

Babs-beetle said...

Wait 'til you come out the other side of menopause - you won't need to shave any more. You'll just drop hairs everywhere you go hahaha!

Ed & Jeanne said...

You didn't have one of those "Help! I've fallen and I can't get up" emergency call systems on you at all times? Boy, you could have broken your funny bone or something. Whew!

Swubird said...

Maureen:

Sad, but funny (hairy legs. Egad!).

My son lives in Minnesota and he tells me about falling on the icy sidewalks. Painful. I can't imagine living in that kind of weather. Out here if it gets below seventy - I'm freezing!

And then, sliding through a stop sign. Now that could have turned out real bad. Luck you - this time. One time my Queen and I were driving right after it had rained. We were going slow, but as we turned a corner the car suddenly fishtailed completely around and began to slid across the road into the oncoming traffic. It was scary, but it turned out okay. These things happen when you least expect them.

Glad you are safe, except for your bum leg, of course.

Happy trails.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you weren't hurt! And I'm glad no-one saw your hairy legs. Not that they'd have worried, only you.

Irene said...

Award for you over at mine.

Cherie said...

I have been there (flat on my butt in the middle of the sidewalk) more than I care to admit. I seriously wonder what the pioneers did to survive winter cause it is about to do me in!

Anonymous said...

It's a good thing us blokes aren't required by arbitrary societal standards to worry about hairy legs! See? This is me counting my blessings... :p

toners said...

Oh dear, Maureen!! I hope you're OK - at least you were at the right place - although I hear you on the leg shaving :)

JD at I Do Things said...

How many doctors have gazed upon my gross, hairy legs? Too many to count. I'm glad you're OK -- that is, I HOPE you are. Is your knee damaged?

Unknown said...

you made the best of it, but what a bummer if you had had to go back in and not get back to comfy home on a day like that.

Maureen said...

Gaaa! After a week of moving Daughter’s bedroom to the basement including moving furniture, two aquariums and boxes of clothes, I can finally get back to my online world!

Vegas Princess: OMG, I could NEVER get a massage without checking every frickin’ inch of my body for hair. Which is probably the reason I have never HAD a massage.

The Finely Tuned Woman: Count yourself lucky! With dark hair I HAD to shave. No other option. Ever. And yes, I am okay.

Daisy: Oh yeah. And you’d think that after being embarrassed so many times in my life, I’d get used to it!

Bruce: Ha Ha! But Ewwww, of course I ALWAYS have clean underwear. I think only men do the more-than-one-day underwear thing.

JoJo: Yes, I felt it the next day, especially after falling yet AGAIN in the morning in our driveway! And LOL at your story!!!! Ha!!!

KarenMeg: Har! Sahara-cracked epidermis!!! I’ll bet he didn’t even notice. Shows how much we over-think things like this.

Jen: I’ll have to make it a regular habit as well… Usually I do in summer, but in winter I live in my jeans; so I didn’t see the point in wasting razors. Yes, I am cheap, er “frugal”.

Carol: Oooh, the emergency surgery. Another good reason to keep clean shaven. Better us doing it than some intern… ahem.

Beetle: And yet another good reason for menopause. Bring it on!!!!

VE: Yes, I think I need one of those emergency call buttons; or at the very least, rubber bands tied to my shoes (yes, people throughout the city resorted to this trick).

Swubird: Ice is not fun to fall on. Once I fell during a curling game. Yes, my pride was hurt (people were watching), but my tailbone hurt even more. Oh and about the non-stop stop sign; yeah, luckily I go so early to work (a little after 6 am) that no traffic was anywhere around. I finally resorted to turning into a snowbank to stop.

Jay: You are probably right… but my knees look like I am a kid again; all scuffed up.

The Finely Tuned Woman: Oh, thank you! I shall be over to take a looksee!!!

Cherie: Isn’t it a weird thing to happen? I don’t recall the actual fall. I only remember all of a sudden finding myself on the ground. And yes, I could never have survived had I been a pioneer!

Tony Single: Yeah, you guys have ALL the luck ;)

Lady Banana: Well, if I didn’t laugh, I’d probably cry… Yeah, the knee is better, thank you!

Toners: Yeah! It wouldn’t have been a long trip back to the ER, that’s for sure!

JD: Ha! Other than bruising and some pulled muscles, I am fine. But I think most of Winnipeg was suffering exactly the same malady that day!

Berry Blog: Yeah, no rest for the injured. It’s difficult to get sympathy from doctors, you know ;)

Janet said...

I tell myself that the leg hairs are for warmth. :-) Glad you're ok!

*Melissa* said...

LOL!!! I stop shaving my legs from August all the way until school lets out in May... Now that is sad... if my students knew that, I would lose so many points on the cool-teacher-meter!

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