WHO: Fearless Friends
WHAT: Sledding...maybe midnight style.
WHEN: Snowy days, in this case snowy nights or preferably the day after snowfall.
WHERE: Raynham Middle School/ Poor Farm Hills
WHY: Why the heck not
A few years ago in 2008 we had gone "midnight sledding" when I lived in an apartment building which I appropriately refereed to as The Frat House because I was the only girl in a house of of 3 guys and on any given day that number would escalate and could easily turn into a football team within a matter of moments. I love having a house now, but I really miss that place- not the neighborhood, the trash that the boys forgot to put out, an occasional boxing match in the basement or the sweat sock smell that wafted from their apartments into the halls, but I miss the guys. I miss the weekend cookouts, beer pong, judging Oliver's rib off competitions, the shooting range with Paul, watching the entertaining neighbors across the street, the weekly orders from B&F Pizza (I swear we sustained their business for the 2 1/2 years while we lived there), walking to Dragon lady and just hanging out because it was Tuesday. There was always something to do and always someone around. For an update,The boys have matured a bit since then and the official Bachelor pad is cleaner and smells better than I ever could have imagined. Luckily we still get together occasionally for events and I see them often in the summer once they start playing softball.
I digress, back to the Winter of 2008. One weekend afternoon Mark and I had purchased some inflatable tubes at Benny's knowing we didn't have any plans for the night, pumped them up and then waited for sunset. Our frat friends and a few extras piled into about 3 vehicles like clown cars complete with a trailing truck which was fully equipped with sleds and tubes and we were on our way.
We learned our lesson on "When" to go sledding that night and what conditions were most favorable. You see, during that adventure Mark was so excited to be sledding that before he even had a chance to go down once, he suddenly had a case of amnesia and thought he was 12 years old again by perfoming a running start, diving cannonball onto the air inflated tube, all the while forgetting that he was a grown man who just happens to be 6'2, and 250 lbs. The tube instantly burst, and sent a popping sound along with roaring laughter echoing into the darkness.
At that point, we were determined to have a good time and were not going to let a little incident like that bring down the mood. After a few single runs, we decided to go down in pairs and first up was Me and Kerri. As we picked up momentum and headed down the super steep, ice slicked hill of blackness we were whipped around which forced us to face up the hill as we proceeded down the hill with fierce like speed. You would think that with two of us on the tube that it would have slowed us down which would have allowed us to stop with plenty of room between the end of our run and the pavement, and so did we. Unfortunately, turns out Physics is not our strong point. Fortunately, most of the way down we managed to reverse our direction to face forward but we were only about 10 feet from pavement and decided last minute to bail and tumble onto each other and the ice rather than onto the parking lot.
Just when you may be thinking that I could possibly be exaggerating and wondering if it could have been that intense ask Kerri, She ended up with a black eye, puffy lip and multiple bruises and scrapes on her face and neck. I was fortunate and only had a few cuts and minor bruises, but nothing comparable. Her face was so messed up that she had to call into work the next day because she was to embarrassed to say it happened while sledding and it looked like she got a bad case of botox or collagen injections.
Lesson learned: do NOT go sledding in pairs after dark on a small one person tube if it has rained after snowfall because it creates a thin sheet of glass-like ice on the surface of the snow which can and will pierce your body and face.
A few sledding tips:
1. Buy durable snow tubes that can support your weight, and perhaps that of another adult (Just in case)
2. Make sure there is plenty of lighting and clearance for safety purposes
3. Check the snow to make certain it is snow and not ice
Our most recent sledding experience last week went much smoother, this time we bought XL durable snow tubes, no one got injured and the moon provided enough light and we were able to see everything. Another plus was that typically the place has about 30-40 people including wild kids running rampant but on late nights that are 3 degrees we were the only ones crazy enough to be out and it was perfect. The night can be summed up with a persuasive quote by Kat, "We are re-living our youth, we only have a few more years where we can actually do this kind of thing". She is right, we need to live it up while we are young.
Go for it, Makes you feel alive!!
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