Beware of ice

The local television weather guy made an announcement recently that was, I think, meant to be uplifting. He said, “And winter is now half over!”

Instead, I took it the other way: We still have half of this winter to get through.

My main complaint this year is ... ice. It’s sneaky, it’s everywhere, it’s apparently invisible in the right circumstances, and yes, it’s slick.

There I was, hauling a load of groceries out of the back of the car, having picked them up curbside from the store and arriving home after dark. One of the bags had fallen over and spilled its contents, requiring me to bend over and lean forward at the same time to retrieve the items that had rolled. Unbeknownst to me, my foot was on a piece of ice. I did not fall, but I did twist my leg in a way that legs are not meant to be twisted. Within an hour the pain hit.

By Day 3 I was wondering if I’d broken something. Day 4 was a bit better, and I knew I was on the mend ... if only I could better plan my trips up and out of the recliner to fetch something instead of making multiple trips through the house for Kindle, water bottle, TV remote and more. Worse, I suppose, was that the cat was upset that she wasn’t allowed on my lap during those days. She sat, with a hurt expression, across the room from me for four days.

I think there are multiple lessons to be learned from my brief foray into pain and incapacity, but the most important one is this: Schedule curbside grocery pickup for daylight hours. Don’t arrive home in the dark in the winter if there’s the slightest chance of ice. It will find you.