Good Thing He's Not A Horse. A Picture Is The Only Thing I Want To Shoot.

We are lucky that The Pony hasn't pulled up lame. Last Saturday, when we braved Mother Nature's freezing mist to drive to Oklahoma and meet him partway from OU, he took a bit of a spill. We had made it all the way home, and The Pony was trotting into the Mansion when it happened. He slipped on the four steps from the brick sidewalk up to the porch.

Being The Pony, he was not concerned for himself. He came back out to help carry things into the house, and cautioned me. "Be careful, Mom. The steps are slick. They don't look like it, but there's a film of ice on them. I just fell." That was it. Only trying to save his elderly mother a broken hip.

The next morning, Farmer H took off for town and did NOTHING about the steps. He could have at least run the edge of a shovel across them, and scraped off that film. But I was forewarned. I set my purse down on the wrought-iron chair that I use to put grocery bags so the dogs don't romp on them while I bring more from T-Hoe's rear. No use climbing steps more than once, say my cantankerous knees. Then I bring everything in from the porch to the kitchen.

Anyhoo...I set down my purse and grabbed the (flat board that acts as my) handrail with both hands. I inched sideways down the steps. Traction was maintained. I pussyfooted across the three squares of concrete sidewalk, stopping to pet the dogs and give them each a small portion of cat kibble. Then I opened up the garage door

AND NEARLY WENT AMPLE BUTTOCKS OVER TEAKETTLE!

The film of ice and snow on the steps and sidewalk had embedded itself in the grooves of my shoe soles. The smooth, finished concrete of the garage floor acted like a skating rink for my flat-soled ice-bottomed shoes.

I immediately called Farmer H to ask him to do something about those steps. When I got home, he had sprinkled salt pellets. Let the record show that when the temperature is in the teens, ice pellets don't really work.

We still have tiny ice pellets laying on the steps and sidewalk. They're not very good at traction. I may be the only person to fall and break a hip on the TREATMENT for the ice.

The poor Pony really fell, though. Even though he's healing, he still bears the mark.