One day in early January last year I was sledding on a huge hill in my backyard with my kids. Now, this hill is running about 40 feet to the ground at an angle that not even the owner behind us can mow with the lawn mower. He has to order a grass-trimming service run by poor Mexicans named Carlos and Juan. So, anyway, I brought out the two family sleds for my two sons, Will and Steven. It was our first year there, so we didn't know what to expect with the steep hill. Will got on our wooden runner sled first, to try and go down. But, he was only 6, so he got scared. I tried to get Steve to go down, too, but they both told me to go down first. So I instead chose the larger plastic sled, the one I could fit in. It's round and turns very fast. I mounted myself at the top of the hill and started to push down. But the thing I did not realize before I went down was that the recent snow we had gotten over the past week was not only snow. It was a thick layer of ice and sleet packed into the ground, topped by a dusting of wet snow. This makes for a bumpy ride. As I started my descent, I felt really cold. Suddenly, the ride got faster. Over the next 10 seconds, I went at a speed that made my cheeks hurt, I hit 4 huge bumps which hurt my butt, and I almost killed myself. I went so fast I could not stand it. Snow kept flying up in my face and I could barely keep hold of the sled. I turned and spun around in circles at least 50 times, so I was really dizzy. At the very end, I hit a huge bump made by some local kids as a snow fort. The sled flew into the air about 8 feet and my hands got tangled in the guiding rope. I could not control it. My feet came out from under me in mid-air, and I landed face first in the snow, where the sled came crashing on top of me. I felt like I had suffered a broken arm, a concussion, and a headache while I was lying on the freezing cold ice. Then I threw up. All over the snow and the sled. By the time I had figured out what had happened, I saw that the sled was split in two, and I had enormous bruises everyone on my body. So don't even try this - it is painful.
Submitted by george the great |
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