Missed it by That Much

We spent 5 days in Vermont for Christmas. One of the best parts about visiting the Northeast Kingdom for Christmas is we get to play in the snow! My sister, Wendy, has this great sledding hill behind her house! At the top of the hill is an amazing vista. I love to go sledding. It's about my speed. Here's Jon and Trevor about halfway down the sledding hill. And Higgins, the dog, getting in the way, or trying to get in on the fun. The only problem is that there's a compost bin at the bottom of the hill and a brother-in-law who likes to push the envelope. He's a great guy and I love him but that's his only fault. (Wendy may say differently.)

So, here's the compost bin in question. It's a nice looking compost bin. Jon asked me at the top of the hill if I wanted a push. I said, "No." But he pushed anyway. I'm not saying he pushed me in the direction of the compost bin. Not saying that. But I was sledding down the hill at a good speed and heading straight for the compost bin. And the closer I got to the compost bin, the more I was saying, "No. No. No." I was doing my best to steer the sled to the left to miss the compost bin but it wasn't moving. Had I been on my Flexible Flyer I'm sure I would have had better luck.

So, I'm heading straight for the compost bin and desperately trying to steer away from it and all the while thinking to myself if I crash that's going to hurt so at the last possible second I leaned my whole body to the left and stopped the sled from crashing into the compost bin by about 1". It was very dramatic and James Bond-like. Then I got up, shook off the snow and went in the house and grabbed my camera. That was the end of sledding for me that day. I went in the house, told everyone I was making hot cocoa but I really was having a shot of Jon's whiskey.