Sledding

One of the things that I've discovered during my winter here in Vermont is my strange enthusiasm for sledding. I blame deprivation as a kid. Growing up in Eastern North Carolina was pretty darn good, but it was lacking in the sledding department. Mostly because there were very few hills and it never was cold enough to snow. That's not entirely true, it snowed enough once in 1989 to actually have some accumulation and everyone was was SO excited. It seemed like a ton of snow to me, but since I was only 5 at the time my perception may be a little off. We went outside and made snowmen and I think we even went sledding in metal bowls down a little hill. It hasn't snowed that much since then and probably won't for a while to come. Everyone still remembers the snow of '89 and looks back on it in slight wonder-or at least I do. So that winter was one of only a few other times that I ever went sledding before I came to Vermont. I have to blame my friend, Cindy, for my infatuation with sledding. She was the one who invited me, my visiting brother and 3 of his friends to go with her one afternoon. We spent the entire afternoon trudging up a gigantic hill and sliding right back down. It was the most fun I had had in a long time. Maybe a little lame, but I can't help it! I've been several times since and every time I get ready to push off the top of the hill I feel like a little kid. I'm not sure that any of my other friends here share the same excitement for sledding that I do, but they are usually pretty easily convinced to come along. I think it has been one of my favorite things here so far!

On a completely different note I was just thinking about one summer back home after a hurricane. The hurricane had come in on a high tide which means that the water levels are always higher than normal and the street near our house flooded. It was probably a couple of feet of water so we got our kayaks out and played around kayaking in the road. Good times, right?