40\u00a0 bar rises 29.60\u00a03mph W dewpoint 30\u00a0 Spring<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waxing Gibbous Moon of Winds<\/p>\n
So, this guy goes out to get his newspaper and slips on the ice.\u00a0 If you read my obituary early, it may start with the line, Died for His Morning Paper.\u00a0 After some initial conflict in our relationship–I wanted to be in the city and Andover was stubborn about remaining in the exurbs–I have come to love our land.\u00a0 All of it.\u00a0 Except.\u00a0 The driveway.<\/p>\n
It slopes.\u00a0 Most days in most years this is no big deal.\u00a0 I drive a car up it and down it.\u00a0 If it snows, I get out the snowblower and remove it.\u00a0 On occasion, usually in March or April, snow melt or rain freezes on the sidewalk and on the slope of the driveway creating a downright dangerous condition.\u00a0 Even more dangerous of course because I encounter it before I’m awake.\u00a0 Kate often gets the newspaper, but she seems to handle the slope better, or at least, doesn’t talk about her slips. (She’s a Norwegian. Stoic.)<\/p>\n
Case in point.\u00a0 This morning.\u00a0 I\u00a0put on my Acorn slippers with their padded plastic soles and went out the front door, down the front steps and onto my @##!\u00a0 Aside from my dignity, which I have little of in the morning anyhow, nothing serious damaged, but I did go back inside and announce that the paper would be retrieved when “conditions warranted.”<\/p>\n
Since Kate was stuck reading Parenting magazine, one of the many free magazine subscriptions she gets just being an MD, I listened to the first few groans, smirks and cries of disbelief at the bad advice, about Parenting, of all things.\u00a0 This made me head for the downstairs and the plastic bucket in which I deposited my Yak-Traks last years.<\/p>\n
Yak-Traks are a fraidy cats dream.\u00a0 They slip over your boot or tennis shoe and put coiled metal in contact with the ice rather than your slippery soul.\u00a0 They worked great.\u00a0 I spread salt on the bad places, got the Tribune, came inside and promptly, you guessed, had a near miss slipping on our tile floor.\u00a0 Turns out the Yak-Traks create instability on solid\u00a0surfaces.\u00a0 Sigh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
40\u00a0 bar rises 29.60\u00a03mph W dewpoint 30\u00a0 Spring \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waxing Gibbous Moon of Winds So, this guy goes out to get his newspaper and slips on the ice.\u00a0 If you read my obituary early, it may start with the line, Died for His Morning Paper.\u00a0 After some initial conflict in our relationship–I wanted to be … Continue reading Dying For a Newspaper<\/span>