Skiing Mishap

Becky asked for the story behind this great picture...so here it is....





While the title "skiing mishap" gives away how the incident occurred, it doesn't tell the story (which, in my opinion, is worth hearing). I consider myself to be a decent skier. I mean, I don't do jumps or flips in the terrain parks and, quite frankly, take forever getting down a difficult hill of moguls but I can certainly hold my own on a groomed double black. Having said that, the "incident" in question didn't happen on a double black diamond...or even a single black diamond. I wasn't attempting something new or cool. No, I was on a fairly flat strectch of a double blue run. My ski pass was hanging around my neck on it's little necklace thing. It had escasped from the confines of my coat and was flapping up and hitting me in the face. I dealt with the annoyance until the afore mentioned "flat stretch" when I decided it's be okay to adjust the pass/jacket fiasco. The next thing I recall is lying on my back, my neck and skull base in an incredible amount of pain. Now, as I am usually (this time excluded) a sufficent skier, I often go last in our group (so if the li'l sis or younger cousins fall, I can help). Because I was last, nobody knew about my little fall. Luckily, my fella takes good care of me and noticed my absence. He then proceeded to hike back up the hill in his skis (which I think sucks...not that he did it, that was sweet...I mean, hiking in skis sucks). My mom and uncle later joined him (I don't recall if anyone else was there). My uncle said he looked up just in time to see me land on my head (whole body in the air) and then kick myself in the head with my ski (perhaps in the opposite order)...unfortunately he didn't see how I managed such a task. Well, I was a bit dizzy and it hurt to move so I chose not to. Apparently, some silly Samaritan ratted me out to the ski patrol because minutes later a lady and her little cripple-sled were at my side. She was asking me questions and kept trying to get me to accept her help (which certainly wasn't going to happen...I'm stubborn when coherent and VERY stubborn when not). She gave me a series of things to remember, something like "Red, Circle, 7." Later she asked if I remembered what she told me and I said something like, "Yeah, you told me you were going to just leave me alone." I then repeated the series of things correctly, signed my life away (a necessary step when refusing the sled ride apparently), and she finally left me alone. Once I finally got up on my own (after swearing I was fine to ski the rest of the run), I realized how badly my head and neck hurt and that bearing the weight of my noggin shot sparks of pain through my body. I skied to the bottom of the run (crying here and there). Turns out that was the end of that ski trip. I wasn't going to worry much about it but my vision was blurred, it sucked to move, and I immediately fell asleep in the car. Eventually, I gave in and went to the hospital. As expected, I was basically fine. I had just strained a bunch of my cervical muscles and had a mild concussion. I was to wear the above pictured delightful brace for 2 weeks. I taught primary the next day for the first time. My class was horrified. I sat with the Sunbeams for a spell as their teachers were both gone and all but one wouldn't come near me. The one that wasn't afraid of me, sat on my lap and kept touching my neck through the little whole in the brace. Hilarious! And there you have it...a day in the life of the accident proned...or clutzy...or perhaps a bit dumb sometimes.