Ice

We have been having an unusually warm January, and that has meant that for the past couple of days temperatures have risen above freezing. It would seem that this would be a cause for celebration, except that it dips back below freezing at different points during the day, and melting + refreezing = slippery slippery ice.

This weekend has been all about ice for a couple of reasons. First, I had the opportunity to try out an adaptive form of cross-country skiing called kneeling sit ski. I first learned about this through a chain of clicked links after searching for something related to learning to ski when you have balance problems. As it turns out, Saskatchewan is the place to be if you want to use adaptive technology for cross-country skiing. I was put in touch with a woman named Colette Bourgonje, who has been a long time member of the Canadian Paralympic ski team. After a number of conversations and email exchanges, we set up a time for me to try a brand-new type of sit ski called a kneeler. It is basically a sort of chair that you kneel in, that hooks into the bindings of regular cross-country skis, and you propel yourself with your arms. She came down from Saskatoon with her sit ski set up and the kneeler, and on Saturday morning we skied at a park that is about a half-mile from our house.

It was super fun, and a really cool thing to be able to try. And, it turned out that the weather was excellent because ice makes everything a little slipperier and makes gliding on a sit ski set up that much easier. It sounds like I will be able to have access to this equipment by joining the Regina Ski Club and a wheelchair sports club. I'm pretty excited, as I think this will be an awesome way to get outdoors in the winter.

When we got back to the car after about forty-five minutes of skiing, everything was extremely icy as there had been some freezing rain. As Jeff started driving he said he hoped I didn't mind if our top speed on the way home was 15 km/h. Of course I said I was glad he was being cautious. So as we were inching along, we had to make a slight right onto a neighborhood street, and Jeff lost control of the car. We were headed ever so slowly toward a parked truck, and no matter what he did Jeff could not change our trajectory. So we slid at about 10 km/h into this parked truck, and the passenger side headlight and body above the front wheel well got completely smashed in. No one was injured, but the car is not drivable, and now we have to wait for an insurance adjuster to look at the damage and tell us where we are supposed to go to get it fixed. In the meantime, after everything melted later in the afternoon we got a rental car.

There is still so much ice around that I can't really go places by myself because I need someone there to give me a hand to get across patches of ice. The weather is supposed to be this way for the next several days. It sounds a little bit crazy, but we are all waiting for the temperatures to get back to the usual -20°C, so things aren't so slippery and I can get back to normal!