Yesterday we had the first snow of the season. It came after
a day of strong rains. That has left us with fairly icy snow
at the bottom layer. My driveway has been a pain to shovel.
But there are some upsides: sledding. We live right next to
a road that the county does not plow. It is a steep hill. My
two and a half year old was excited about trying sledding
this year after being a little afraid of it last year. I
went down the hill to try it out, then my wife did. The icy
snow made it go a little too fast for my wife's tastes. I
decided to still go down the hill with my daughter.

I think she was nervous but enjoyed most of the ride. We
ended up in a tire track that had heavily iced and really
bruised up my tailbone, lol. The part she didn't like was at
the end. I was trying to slow us down with my feet, as we
were heading toward an embankment. We slowed but spun a bit
a slowly flipped over. She was fine and I shielded her from
getting hurt, but she cried a bit. So I carried her up the
hill and we went in. My fingers were pretty numb and I did
not notice that I had torn off half of my thumbnail and cut
the upper part of my thumb (nearest the top knuckly) pretty
badly. I had not noticed the whole way in and only noticed
when I went to grab the doorknob and was dripping a bit of
blood. So that was an adventure. She has been fascinated by
a book (an adult book) on the human body that my father in
law had given her. So I got to show her blood and a little
bit of first aid. She liked that I put on a bandage.

I don't think the snow will stick for more than another day
or so, except in the shadows. We are supposed to get another
dusting next week, but probably not as much as we got this
time.

I later saw her pulling the sled around, so I don't think
she is too scared to go again. Maybe we'll try a smaller
hill though.

I hope all of you in gopherspace are enjoying the season and
staying safe. Best wishes from my sorely neglected phlog
hosted on an Rpi0w in the mountains of southern california.