I should have stayed in bed

Taking a week off to travel where the weather is warm, like my wife and sons and I did a couple weeks ago, apparently wasn’t such a good idea.

First off, we didn’t want to come home. Especially when we heard the temperatures had dipped to where the highs weren’t even reaching zero.
Then playing catch up on the work we missed, while shoveling snow every couple hours to stay ahead of the growing pile on the sidewalk at work and driveway at home. Those few days of golf and being lazy pool side, along with a great trip to Los Angeles to watch the Lakers play at the Staples Center, quickly became memories of a time far, far away.

It was all topped off last Friday. I awoke early to go to work. Being electrically and economically frugal, I don’t turn many lights on while getting ready in the mornings. So when I went to the garage and pushed the door opener button, it was a surprise when it didn’t open. Flipping the light switch to check out the problem didn’t help when no lights went on.

Part of the house had power and part didn’t. Figuring out why took me and two employees from Hunt Electric the better part of two hours.
But I get ahead of myself.

Needing to get to work, I unlatched the garage door from the electric opener and manhandled it open, with ice tugging against me as it attached to the bottom of the door. Finally getting it open, I looked over at Debbie’s car, only to see a flat on the back right tire.

I hollered at her to take the other work pickup, but she’d need to chip off the ice and warm it up first. I’d take her car to Les Schwab for help later after I checked in at work and made some effort to look like I was going to get something done.

Then meeting up with the electricians, we began our search for the missing current. During one walk around the house I found an icy patch, but managed to keep my footing and warn them of the danger. Not ten minutes later I walked by there again and found myself magically airborne before crashing to the ground in a pile of cold snow.

Doing what any self-respecting person would do, I first looked to make sure no one had seen my misstep. Safe from embarrassment, I quickly leapt to my feet, dusted myself off and started licking my wounds. A cut here, nick there, and both knees felt like I had torn the MCLs, ACLs, LCLs and every other available CL. Not to mention all the other sore muscles from shoveling snow eight times over the past two days.

When the power went out and her car had a flat, Debbie warned me we should have just turned around and got back in bed. Next time I’m going to listen to her – or head back down south again.

Brett Crompton can be contacted at press1@press-times.com