But throughout this visit, I've been thoroughly surprised with Ohio's best. Wind storms sweeping through and ice what seems like every other day. I mean really? Thats not fun. One night I literally laid in bed for what had to be an hour shivering until I finally warmed up and then was able to fall asleep. Its been frigid and brutal. That brings me to the story I want to tell you.
Jen got in town yesterday, so my mom, sister and I braved the weather and did what any three girls would do. We went shopping and out to eat. Each time we arrived to a new place, I opened the car door, put my foot on the pavement and moved it around a bit to test the surface. Some places were worse than others, but as the night went on, the ground got worse. I was finding that my feet weren't leaving the ground much. Instead, I did what is referred to as the 'old lady shuffle.' Anyone who has been to China might remember what that looks like or perhaps checked their pride long enough to do the old lady shuffle. I became a quick master at the shuffle. After falling twice on the red and yellow tile in China, I had no other choice but to learn the shuffle. Its quite simple. you move your feet forward like you are walking but rather don't pick up your feet, and if you do, dare not pick them up more than three inches off the ground. Then you are sure to keep your balance. So from store to store I did this, and survived.
We had two cars out, long story. We were finally getting home and Jen and I were first up the driveway. We slid around a bit and positioned ourself perfectly, put the car in park and then all of the sudden I could have sworn the scenery around me was moving forward. Oh wait, or is that us moving backwards? Yep, no traction and we are moving down the slight hill on our driveway. My mom is coming up behind us, lets let her have a go. She does the same thing except hardly even makes it halfway up before she is back on the street. Jen and I flip around and decide we will get the mail. Why not right..the driveway has already defeated us, lets try the mailbox area. Well, just picture two boneheads dying laughing as we maneuver ourself back and forward to try to get the mail. It was as if we were driving a boat up to the dock we had that little control. Have I mentioned everything is solid ice? Steering really made little to no difference but we still felt the need to try. Minutes later, with mail in hand we made our next attempt at the driveway. Failed. I then got out and decided to put salt down. See, if you live in Ohio you more than likely have salt in your garage that could be used every few days to avoid being trapped at home. If you don't you should. But getting up the driveway, well that was a task. You might be thinking, 'just walk up the grass' but I assure you, even that was no safe. So heres the good part. Salt is down, the boat is now parked in a spot out front and Jen is going to try to walk in her heels up the house. My mom and pup are watching and I'm there to help. She made it past the curb, which was the first big task and then we were walking together. We were nearing safe ground (aka the garage) when Jen had both feet on the solid ice, as did I, and we started moving backwards. Bad news. I'm trying to hold onto her and she onto me and we are quickly sliding down. The story would be better if I could say we busted, but lucky for us we didn't. I acted quickly and jumped to something that looked somewhat safe, slipped again and we were inside. Needless to say, we were in for the night.
Everything in this town last night was one solid sheet of ice. Quite the disappointment because I was hoping for a large snow storm. But if you get rain followed by really cold weather, its bond to be bad. I wish it would snow before I left...
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