hmm today was fun, if youve seen the weather lately you will notice that most of central nc had another ice storm. this is not like a snowstorm... much different. insted of 2" of fluffy white wimpy sledless snow, we had literally 2" of nice hard slick ice, everywhere. even i (at a measly 135) can still sled it and it not break and plow thru like snow would. if you have a death wish, this stuff is the most fun you could ask for, if not, i would advise staying indoors for a while. so anyway i broke out the arsenal, a yellow saucer and a good old wood and metal steerable flexible flyer. ::one of my friends just didnt know who "freebird" was by... damn yankees:: anyway, its slick and fast and a helluva lot of fun assuming you dont get hurt. unless you want to get hurt, in which case it is a wonderful opportunity to get hurt as well as have fun, its a win-win for you my friend. its great for me though, my yard is layed out like this: theres the house in the middle, to the left of the house is a fairly steep hill, going past my house is a not as steep but longer hill ending in many trees and a creek. behind the house, the hill continues (it goes front to back) along to the back right corner. all along the top is trees and creek. this is where the sledding comes to an end. the entire top right quadrant is fenced in. the front yard gently slopes to the right. most sledding is done from the left bottom to the left-right top. ok so the first run of the day, im on my back on the saucer like i spend most of my time. my dad has a wonderful idea, he will grab my leg and throw me at speed down the hill. im thinking, ok, this could be fun. well he throws me and 30 feet later i promptly smack a tree. i narrowly miss puncturing my hand on the tree, its just a bruise. so, ok this is fun. there were more runs during the day but i will just go through the interesting ones. next good run im in the saucer again going backwards down the hill. i manage to spin myself around to see where im going and guess what, im about to crash into this 6" tree. well bring it on, im 135 lbs of man in a flying saucer i can take you. but the tree decides not to move. i cover my face and roll up some. its more of a glancing blow, to the side so im still going. as i slide past the tree i try to wrap my right leg around it because i kinda dont want to keep going. well my leg slips off the tree and i start sliding again. bad idea. i slid another 2 feet and dropped. dropped 3 feet off a cliff and into some more ice but i was stopped by some thickets before i went into the freezing cold creek. that one didnt hurt that much, more fun than anything, i need to try it more often... actually i did, on purpose but its ok because i didnt get hurt again. the next one was a little more painful. this time i went near the same place also on the saucer. i turned and looked and was headed for one of our dogwoods. dogwoods arent very tall trees but they have long swooping branches that go all the way down to the ground. im staring these branches down until i realize that i might better cover up before long. so i roll up with my back to the tree and go under the branches. im thinkin, wow, that was easy. that is... until crunch. crunch is the noise my back made as it slammed directly into the tree behind the dogwood. another 6-8 incher but this one smacked me center and at a good speed. talk about your deceleration whoo ive been there. the tree held its ground. so anyway, imagine being popped across the back just below your shoulderblades with a tree, not a very cool experience. so i lay there for a minute checking to see if my fingers and toes still work, they do, and i finally get up and walk away from this car crash baby. the last big bang of the first session was on the last run. i start up at the top of the hill on the flyer this time. race down like a damn indy car, streamlined with my head down and my legs straight out. i start out slow down the hill but gain speed, turn between 2 trees and a foot from a horseshoe pit i fly. right so i can go down by the fence and run beside it. i go down there to the right of another tree and close to the fence, haaard left almost scraping the fence but dont, i swerve off left though and lose control. some lite thickets 15 feet from the fence provide stoppage. this wouldnt have been such an exciting run if it were not what could have happened. you see, this is near the creek. the thing is, 4 feet beyond where i stopped, there is another cliff. this one falls directly into the shallow creek and rocky area. this cliff is 10 feet high. if i hadnt hit the creek or the rocks i would have run smack into the ledge on the other side, neither fun flying at speed on a sled. i could have died. the other thing is, 2 feet to my right there are no thickets, just an uninhibited leap off the cliff and into oblivion. thats all for then, i come in and rest myself but go out again later. this afternoon's session isnt as bad as the morning one although i hurt some too. its much more of the same, going off the small cliff and stuff, making long runs past the 10 foot ledge and 20 feet into deep thickets another 50 past the creek (fun stuff) which makes the longest runs of the day. i also went down the front yard to the right of the house past the fence on the other side and a smaller creek to my right there without incident. the only thing was that this whole time i wore no gloves so all the ice and rolling off the sled (on high speed turns, quite fun) cut my hands over and over so there was a little loss of blood but not much... o well thats all for now, tomorrow is another free day so maybe i will have some more grisly details to report, maybe not... peace out