Well...I Could Skate Back In The Day

I heard the youth in our ward/congregation were going ice skating tonight. My youngest is in that age group, and I thought I remembered him liking to skate. We asked him if he'd like to go. He said he would. I asked if I could tag along and was told that would be okay.

I was excited. I don't know how often I skated as a kid, but I remembered being able to skate--not amazingly well--but good enough to glide across the ice, skate backwards, even go fast. I remember a few years back I returned to the slopes after not having skied in over a decade. I was worried then I'd have forgotten how to ski. On the first run it all came back and I had a blast, even after all those years.

I thought ice skating would be the same.

I was wrong.

I went with my thirteen-year old son. He's only been a few times. He started out and hugged the edge of the rink to get going. I took one step on the ice and realized immediately, unlike skiing, this particular skill was not going to return quite so quickly. 

There's a few reasons for this. First--I think it's been even longer since I strapped on a pair of ice skates and ventured out on a sheet of frozen water. It might have been twenty years or more. Second--the likelihood of getting seriously injured by falling down has increased exponentially as I've gotten older. I envisioned me breaking a wrist or a hip or a back if I fell. I watched kids practically fall down at will, fearing nothing. Me...well, I did not want to find out just how bad it could be if I were to hit the ice. Third--it wasn't as easy to remain upright. I think my balancing ability has slipped through the years. And fourth--I weigh a lot more than I did a few decades ago.

When I first stepped onto the ice, I struggled to get move. When I'd traveled around half the rink, I sat in the penalty box and tightened up my laces. That helped. I went back out there and took my time, got used to how it felt to have two thin metal blades separating my body from a rock-hard sheet of ice and push myself forward.

It took a while, but I was able to circle the rink without the assistance of the sides. I admit, by the end of tonight's adventure, some of what I could do way back when returned. I think if I went to the rink a couple of times a week, those long-lost skills might come back--not to where they were, but maybe close. Yes, when I returned to a mountain on two skis, it came back quickly. Tonight, not so much. That's okay--I had a blast anyway.

Our Giving Tree...

On Sunday our oldest son said that they were looking for service projects do to in our neighborhood. The youth were looking for things to do on Tuesday night for service projects.

"We have a tree that needs to be chopped up," I said.

I have been meaning to take care of the tree, but with working overtime and darkness arriving earlier and earlier every day, I didn't have a chance to take care of it.

I found out Tuesday night that our tree was on the list of things for the kids to do.

I've been on service projects before, and usually when the disposal of trees is needed, chainsaws are involved. What I didn't now is that the kids were being split up into teams of three kids and one adult. The teams were then sent out to try and do as many things on their lists as possible. 

In the span of 20 minutes we had six or so teams of kids show up. By this time it was dark and none of the kids had chainsaws (thank goodness...). The only thing we had were hand saws. Since the kids wanted to help, we chopped up the tree with the saws in the dark. By morning, this is what we saw.

I really do appreciate their help. This weekend I'll be able to finish the job and we can finally mow the lawn underneath the fallen tree. Glad we help the kids out who were helping us.