Happy Valentines Day!

Valentines Day. What does it conjur images of? Love, hearts, flowers, the color red? Here in the midwest, valentines day also brings to my mind images of snow as it was snowing AGAIN this morning. So what to blog about this morning and incorporate some of those themes. I love my sister dearly. So there's one theme covered. What is red that I could tie in. Hmmmm. How about blood? Then of course snow. Do I have any stories that would involve my sister, snow and blood? But of course. Travel back with me now.


Growing up in upstate NY we lived in a great house that was on a large wooded lot a bit out in the country, basically on the side of a huge hill / small mountain called Echo Hill. Due to being built on this hill, we had a very long, fairly steep driveway that curved down from the road into the garage. I remember my parents having to park up on the road sometimes because while the driveway curved into the garage, if you went straight, there was a significant drop into the woods and it was pretty dangerous if you lost control going down.


Now living out in the country like this made winter time a blast for kids. Tons of snow and lots of open areas to explore and play in. My sister and I would build huge snow forts with some of the kids that lived around there. We would stage massive snowball fights. Heck I even remember breaking the ice on the little stream that ran not too far from the house and soaking snowballs and letting them freeze for maximum impact. Ahhh, good times.


Through the woods near our place was an old stone quarry that was no longer in use. This made a pretty great playground for us as kids, but the best part was on the one side was a dried up river bed. This went winding through the woods for quite a ways and had very steep banks. Yep, just like a luge or bobsled track. It took some breaking in after a new snow, but once you got everything packed down again, you could just fly down this thing, banking off the corners just like you were in your own bobsled. At the end of this bobsled run was the road for a couple peoples houses. I know what you are thinking, sledding into the road is a bad thing. Well, I would generally agree with you, however since there were a total of like 3 people that ever used that road and they knew kids sledded there, it was pretty safe. Besides, we didn't sled right into the road. When the plows would come through, they would push those massive snowbanks up on the sides of the road so we had a stopping point. Or did we? Cmon now, we were kids .. and maybe not the brightest all the time when it came to personal safety. So we smoothed the thing out and finished the bobsled run off with a big jump. The goal was to see if you could CLEAR the road on your jump. See? Far safer jumping potential traffic and trying to land in the snow in the ditch on the other side! *evil grin*


While we had many fun times on that run, I have to get back to the driveway and the themes for today's post. Sometimes you just didn't feel like walking through the deep snow to get all the way over to the run for just a bit of sledding. But hey, we have a long steep driveway remember? So there we are one day.. a new snow on the driveway. I don't remember if we got permission from my parents or not, but my sister and I decided to head outside for some fun in the snow. We were all bundled up in our snowsuits, hats, scarves and gloves.

You remember those red plastic sleds? Not the saucer ones, but the long ones you could lie down in, or stack a couple friends in. Well there we are with new snow and a couple of those sleds and what was quite possibly the most brilliant idea I had up to that point in my life. Why sit down on a the sled? Anyone can do that. No challenge or adventure. Been there, done that. I was an innovator. I had to have some new sledding material to work with. So I look at my sled and decide that this thin piece of red plastic with the rope attached to the front could be utilized more like a chariot or maybe a surboard of sorts. Yes, that's right, let's stand in the sled and slide down the steep, curving driveway with the drop into the woods at the end if you miss the turn. That should up the judges score with the much higher degree of difficulty!

Having worked this brilliant scheme out in my head, I decided that no test runs from a safe distance up the driveway were required. I was that good. We were just going to start right at the top and let it rip. So there I am in 27lbs of snow gear for padding, standing at the top of what suddenly seemed more like a black diamond ski run than a driveway. I put the sled down, grabbed the rope attached to the front and stood on the sled with one foot. I used the other to start me over the edge and then bent my knees like a pro surfer and rode that thing smoothly down the driveway to the garage, jumping off and stopping right before I smashed into the garage door. Yes, I may very well have just invented snowboarding.

Oh, you were expecting a crash into the woods? Blood? Patience my friend, patience. Remember who else was out there with me? Yes, my darling sister. She is three years younger than me and at the time of this great adventure, I would guess I was about 9 .. putting her at 6. Now she had just watched me flawlessly pull this standing sled thing off and come away excited and unscathed. Not wanting to be outdone by her big brother and possibly because of some taunts from me about not being a big baby, she was soon about halfway up the driveway, putting he sled on the ground getting ready for her maiden voyage.

The driveway is slanted remember? That's what makes sledding possible in the first place. So trying to start on the slant is really not a great idea, but she felt it was safer at that distance and I guess was figuring on going slower since she wasn't at the top. So standing one foot in the sled, holding the rope like I did, she steps in. And promptly panics. Now, at 6, she really doesn't have much of a grasp on physics. Not that I had a much better grasp at 9 I'm sure, but I remembered to balance and bend my knees like a surfer and shift my weight back and forth to curve smoothly to the garage and then step off before crashing. My sister instead just lost it. She is now screaming as she is picking up speed. Her angle was taking her towards the garage door, which while quite solid was probably the lesser of two evils when compared to going off the edge of the drop into the woods and hitting a tree.

So there is this 6 year old, also in 20lbs of snow gear, standing in a plastic sled and picking up speed down the driveway towards the garage door. Had she relaxed and though about it, she could have just let go of the rope and stepped off the sled. She was already in panic mode though so it was too late for that. Closer and closer .. picking up speed still, what is she going to do? Still screaming, something in her head finally decided that she was just going to plop straight down on her butt and go feet first into whatever obsticle ended up being at the end of the run. Overall, not a bad decision. Really, probably the safest all things considered.

Have you ever fallen backwards hard right on your ass? Im not talking sitting down hard on a chair or anything, but just straight back from your standing position to the ground. It is quite an impact and has quite a jarring effect on your body. We used to play a game in youth group in high school that was like musical chairs, only you could play it anywhere .. without chairs. Everyone had a paper plate which you kind of held over your ass as we all walked around in a circle while the music played. When the music stopped, the goal was to not be the last one to get your butt on the ground on top of your paper plate. What this meant was basically with no padding other than this paper plate, you had to repeatedly toss yourself on your ass. Along with a sore backside, one thing you learn real quick was KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT TIGHT when you drop. The impact jars your skull pretty bad and you don't want your jaws slamming on each other. Now, with that lesson in mind, back to the impending crash.

Sister, flying towards the garage, has decided to drop on her butt. Wait though, what else was she doing? Yes, that's right, screaming. Mouth wide open, screaming at the top of her lungs. Now down she goes, still screaming, and what happened next, is still a blur. Somehow on the way down, screaming, she stuck her tongue out too. When she hit the ground, sure enough that skull jarring impact I mentioned above did happen and forced her jaws closed quickly and with a lot of force. Next thing I know, my sister is still trying to scream as she is sliding the last bit towards the door, only now blood is pouring down her chin. As she is trying to scream, its making blood bubbles. There is blood on her snowsuit now, in the sled, and on the snow.

A few things popped into my head right then. First was that my sister had bitten her tongue clean off and I really didn't want to be the kid with the freak sister with no tongue. That thought was immediately followed by thinking I had to get out of there, because there was no way I was not getting in trouble for this, regardless of the fact that I didn't do anything other than pull off a flawless standing sled run down the driveway. Really, I should be awarded a medal or something for that performance. Judges? All tens except the Russian judge. Figures. Wait a second... I should probably get help as my sister is now in hysterics still sitting in her sled and bleeding profusely from the mouth. Besides.. the screaming thing was getting on my nerves.

Out come my parents to handle the situation. I don't remember exactly what happened after that other than it involved a trip to the emergency room. Fortunately my sister had only put some big puncture wounds in her tongue and hadn't bit it clean off. Whew, no freak sister for me! I don't remember if I actually got in trouble or not, but I am sure there were at least some lectures on being a responsible big brother and not putting stupid ideas in her head. Like its MY fault she can't balance and flipped out as soon as she started moving.

Anyway, there you go. Snow, the color red, and of course love. I love you Sis! Happy valentines day everyone.