Rollerblading Season Begins...

The sun was shining and there was very little wind, so this morning I made the decision to go to Target and buy a safety helmet to mollify my friends who cannot find it in their busy schedules to visit me in the hospital when I break something skating.

While at Target I came across a clearance sale on the small rag rugs (2x3') I never got around to buying last February. They were now $1.24 so I got four. And then I saw queen size 100% cotton bed sheets sets in RED for half price ($14.95) so I grabbed two sets, since this will never fall into my lap again. Then I searched and found a set in Yellow and Green and another set in a window pane check. So five sets of cotton sheets, went in my cart. Then I scrounged a small circular glass tabletop which was also only $1.24 and that will be used as a palette for my oil paints... O yeah, I did get the helmet, PURPLE and quite dorky, but it works.

I like to skate in the afternoon before the school buses clog up the neighborhood streets, but I got a late start today, since I had to clean out the closet to store the new sheet sets. About 3 pm I was pulling on my knee pads, wrist pads, elbow pads, donning my helmet, and lacing my skates. I had a full bottle of water and a prayer on my lips and off I went down the driveway. This armor doesn't allow for much gracefulness, but one must be sensible when one is tempting fate.
Ah, the wind in my face, and the smell of magnolias and hyacinths in bloom was just delightful. My knees were grinding out a tune, "Stop in the name of love" and my deflated pizza dough upper arms were flapping wildly with each stride. I kept repeating my mantra "tiny butt...tiny butt...tiny butt...and soon I was coasting speedily down an unfamiliar street.

O no!

This is the street I carefully avoided last year, since it is unexpectedly steep. Knowing it is too hard to skate up it, I usually passed it by in favor of a more level street one block ahead. Now I was racing forward with no hope of slowing down in time to avoid the intersection.

O no! I really mean it this time!!

Despite the fact that this is my second year on rollerblades, I have managed to avoid learning how to stop, or even really slow down. If there is lawn available I have hopped onto it to save my own life, but this was not possible today. I tried going sideways like skiers do and that did help a bit, but nevertheless I careened around a parked car and into the crosswalk, and turned the corner onto level ground. Phew! That was a close one.

I have got to get more sense soon. After an hour (not counting getting dressed in all the gear) I arrived alive back in my own garage. My legs are tingling and I am walking like a cripple but my cheeks have a rosey glow that I usually only see after my second cabernet. Hmm. That sounds pretty good about now. A reward for exercising!