Its Icy Out There, Duh!

[Hare's Ear]

I live in NE Portland. Its just now starting to warm up. This morning I got up at 6:30, put on my bathrobe and slippers, and stepped outside to get the paper. Since I had cleared the steps up to our front door last night I thought they would be OK. In the dim light they looked wet. Not so, they were covered with ice. I stepped down onto the first step and that was all she wrote. My butt and shoulder smacked the first concrete step, then each of remaining 3 steps in quick succession. I found myself lying on my back on the wet and icy sidewalk, bathrobe wide open (only briefs on underneath), in the cold, in a great deal of pain. In some bizarre show of duty, I turned over and crawled on my hands and knees and grabbed the paper. I then turned around, still on my hands and knees, and crawled back to the steps. I managed to stand up and tried to climb the steps. No way, to slippery. Back on my hands and knees and after a couple of tries I made it up to the porch. Got back into the house, stripped out of my soaking wet bathrobe and skivvies, toweled off, took some aspirin, and climbed back into bed. I'm going to be sore, sore, sore tomorrow.

[Hare's Ear]

I had emailed the above story to my fishing partner in Washugal earlier today. Not to be outdone, he emailed back the following story (edited):

While that's truly an inspiring tale of woe, try this one on for size...

As you know, our garage doors face into the east. When it first started snowing and the east wind was howling, we got a snow drift about 5 feet deep in front of our garage. I kept shoveling out a path just wide enough to drive the Bronco in & out of the garage. It took me 45 minutes of whacking on the garage door with a rubber mallet yesterday morning just to bust the 6" of ice off the door joints so I could raise & lower the door. When I pulled into the driveway last night, I had to get out & bust the ice off the garage doors again (we had another 2+ inches of freezing rain during the day). Rubber mallet in hand & Bronco idling in neutral, I go to squeeze out the door to go to work on the garage - remember, I barely shoveled enough room to drive through this snow drift, let alone open the door wide enough to squeeze my large rear end (edited) out into the cold air. My feet hit the ground and promptly went out from under me ... The ice on the garage door wasn't obvious enough to warn me about the new ice lurking under foot. Anyways, in slow motion I slide down the side of the Bronco. Since it's covered in a sheet of ice, I can't get a grip on anything to stop my fall. The snow bank developed a nice natural curve that just swept me underneath the Bronco. So I'm lying on my back with just my head sticking out from underneath a running car that's in neutral with no parking brake set (wouldn't want that to freeze up now, would we). Luckily, Lisa watched the whole thing and came out to my rescue. I was like a turtle on his back. I couldn't get enough traction to move and there wasn't enough room to slide anything more than my head out from under the car. Lisa finally just threw me a rope and drug me out the back end of the Bronco. You'd think that was traumatic enough. After I got the garage door unthawed and open, I went to get back into the Bronco to put it away and I fell into the same darn (edited) spot as I was in before. After having Lisa extract me from under the car one more time, I got into the Bronco through the back window.

But, you've given me a bright spot finally ...... at least I wasn't in my BVD's!

[Firedog]

Good Stories. Everyone be careful it is slick and a lot of people are getting hurt in this. I have been lucky enough to be off duty for the last few days but I have talked to the guys at the station and they have been running the wheels off all over the city. So busy that the ambulances are overwhelemed and long wait's for them. I am back at work tomorrow and expect a very busy day.

[Tilla]

A work partner has some minor surgery planned today on his hand. He went to the hospital this morning just to find out that no surgeries were being performed. Their car could not make it up the hill to the house on the return trip. They got out to walk the last 200 yds. He slipped and ripped his knee to pieces. Well, at least he won't be falling down soon.
I bet a bunch of you have been getting the "you can't be serious", [img]graemlins/eek13.gif[/img] look from your pets!

[finclipped]

Ahhh that makes me feel better.

Yesterday, after two days in the house I needed to get out. I went over to a friends to help repack his wheel bearings on his boat trailer,,,, Well he has a slight slope to his driveway and the Ice is 2" thick on everything.

I am well dressed with a heavy jacket, carnhardt bibs and those insulated rubber boots. Well you can't even crawl up his driveway, so luckily he is at the top and shovels a walkway, just large enough to get through. I make it into the garage, step one completed...

We then proceed to repack the bearing and it is time to go. Step 2 completed... Well I had about three loads of tools that I had left the last time, and since the job is over I pick up my craftsman tool set and head back down the driveway towards my pickup...

I get to the pickup and carefully reach for the canopy door and lift it up. Next thing I know, I am on my ass with what seems like a thousands sockets scattered across the road. On All fours, I crawl arount to pick them up one at a time, throw them in the truck, and tell my friend I will back for the rest, someday....

Nothing broke, but a little blood and one large bruise.

[StinkyH]

I ventured out on Tuesday to get the mail - about 10ft off my door step I slipped and fell straight on my butt. The second time I fell I only made it 10 ft more... then mumbled something to the tune of screw this and headed back in. Mail can wait.

StinkyH

[WheresMyBobber]

Put down some cat litter on the ice and it's much easier and safer to walk on. You need to reapply it occasionally, but it's worth it's weight in gold for traction on ice.

[Hare's Ear]

My wife spread litter on the steps after my fall. However, our cats use the scoopable litter. It added a little traction, then turned to mush.