Surprise...Ice!

After an unseasonably warm and not-snowy debut, winter finally coughed and sputtered to a start here about three weeks ago. It turned cold suddenly, cold enough that I found myself actually hoping for the heating to work in its usual ridiculous overtime way so that I would be warm enough under my down comforter. (That's a slight exaggeration.) And generally, it stayed fairly cold--not as cold as Boston, and definitely not as cold as Michigan or Canada or other cold places, but for a state in the lower Northeastern United States, not bad.

Still, it refused to snow until about a week and a half ago, when the clouds decided to shake their shaggy heads a little and let down a few tiny flakes. This has mostly been the situation since: cold weather, occasional snow flurries, occasional dusting of white stuff on the colder pieces of ground. From time to time, a thin blanket (more like a cotton sheet)over lawn and street and car.

Last night, the only difference was that it was warmer out, slightly above freezing, so the big flakes that fell melted into a fine slush on the pavement when they landed. The grass looked nice and pretty, as if some magical baker had come by with his bag of flour and lightly dusted the green places of the city. But otherwise, the ground was merely wet.

This morning, I woke up groggy, and after talking to Virginia on the phone a bit, decided I was going to surprise her by meeting her for a kiss before she went into the city to study at the New York Public Library. After gathering myself enough to be dressed and reasonably insulated against the cold, and bearing my car key in one hand and a bottle of mango nectar in the other, I stepped out the door...and onto a patch of ice that had formed from the slush of the previous evening.

This was the fun part: falling happened very slowly. I felt my foot slide and tried to stop it the way one usually does when one slips. But my foot kept sliding. I dropped the juice and tried to catch myself on the outer glass door, or the railing to my right, or the brick corner post but missed, I think. I twisted and my feet kept falling, began to move down steps. I slapped my right hand on the other railing, but it was covered in ice and my mittens slid and my keys disappeared from my grasp. My body extended fully, my torso turned downward to face the stairs, I landed and continued to slide. My left hand gripped the top step. My feet stretched out down the stairs, my hip bounced on the corner of one of the slate steps, my right hand came off the railing and grabbed for another step. I stopped. Ouch.

The less fun part was figuring out how to get up. I took stock of myself. (Bruised hip, scraped fingers, sore wrist and thumb. Okay.) I took stock of the stairs, which were almost completely covered in ice, and the railing nearest me, which was as well. My bottle of juice lay calmly on its side at the top of the steps. My keys had vanished; I suspected they had ventured into the bushes to my right. I pushed myself up, grabbed both railings, steadied my feet, and gingerly climbed the stairs. I re-collected my juice and went back inside to regroup and strategize. Something would have to be done, and quickly, if I were to make it to see my baby.

In the end I ventured outside cautiously and realized that a filament of bare concrete lay exposed on one side of the stairs, thanks to the notorious warming effect of sunlight. I made it down the steps, and after rooting around in the bushes for a bit, found my car keys down by the sidewalk. I hopped in the car, drove off, and, happy ending, got to surprise and kiss Virginia! So she was all smiley and happy when she got a ride into the city, and I was all smiley and happy as I drove to the store to get rock salt so that I might do battle with my icy nemesis. And a good time was had by all.