The day began well.... There was a chance of snow. Usually this means there is a "snowballs chance in hell" of any precipitation. 10:00 a.m., rain begins, 10:15 sleet begins to mix with the rain. This is what they refer to down here as "mixed precipitation". 'Bout 10:30, the mix included snow. Now when I say snow, this is snow like I have never seen in my 28+ years of living in the Lone Star State. It was blowing snow, horizontal snow, treacherous snow, visibility was less than 1/4 mile in places. Made it home in one piece. Of course, being Texas, school was dismissed early and the North Central Texas region began it's routine Snow Shutdown. Great! Now Cait and I can take some memorable pictures. By five o'clock, yes 5:00!!! the snow began to let up. I thought to myself "self, you should go measure the snow". Rounded up my camera, found a yardstick and proceeded to the back patio. For future reference, in the picture above, I am standing directly above the terrace steps. Yes, there are steps under that snow. I was going to gracefully waltz down those steps and measure the snow on the ledge to the right, right behind that rolled up hose. That was my intention; gracefully waltz.... About the second step, I felt my foot slide out from under me. I knew I was going down and there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it. Due to my athletic ability, I thought, I should tuck into this, maybe I won't hurt myself. Now keep in mind, this all happened in approximately three seconds. So tuck I did, into a "V" shape. Turns out, the bottom of the "v" happened to be my butt, or rather coccygeal region, tailbone, however you wish to refer to it. I later thought that if I had been
diving off of the high board, the "v" would have been the perfect form. If Greg Louganis could do it, why can't I? Down I went, landed on my butt. I must say that it stunned me a bit. I felt immediate pain in the coccygeal region. I began calling for Cait to come assist me. After I reached a screeching crescendo, she came out the back door. (She later said that she only came out because she thought one of the dogs had gotten a little bird that was having a hard time flying in gail force winds of blinding snow). Upon opening the door, all five of our lovely canines descended upon my prone body, jumping on top of me, licking my face. Yes, I love to play with the kids but prefer to be upright when doing so. Cait is standing above me. This statement came from my lovely child, "Well, I wonder what neighbor saw THAT". Obviously, no one, as no one came to my aid.... I then attempted to regain my footing, while fighting off dogs, holding my camera out of the snow and gracefully regaining my footing. Cait continues to stand and watch, no offers of help forthcoming. Fast forward thirty minutes... I am now in the house, in dry clothes and my butt is in full throb mode. For those of you who may find yourselves in a similiar predictament, might I suggest some positions to sit: None. It is impossible to sit, stand, walk or move without excruciating pain. I have found that if I sit forward on the very edge of the recliner, turned to the side, and lean forward, the pain subsides a bit. I have also found that it is not possible to sit like this for any length of time. Once I have reached my pain limits, I attempt to stand up. It takes several minutes to scoot forward in the chair. It is best to lean forward as far as one can, head down. Tip forward til you are headed towards the floor. Now, put a hand on each knee and puuuussshhhh up. DO NOT STOP MIDWAY UP. As you are going thru these movements, you will scream in agony. Keep moving. Once you are upright, you hopefully will not lose conciousness, but will become light headed. Stand and steady yourself before attempting your next move. Do not, I repeat, do not, lift your feet when walking, gracefully slide one foot forward, swivel your body to meet that leg, then slide the next foot forward. For those of you who have carpet, you'll have to figure something else out. It is now approximately 26 hours later. Pain does not seem to be letting up. I did look in my mirror and my butt is, ummm, shall we say, BLACK. I must go now, I am stiff from sitting in this position. Head down, hands on knees, tip forward........ AARRRGGGHHHHHHH (
^$@)^*$@%_&$@!#.
By the way, we got five and a half inches.
So Sax comes in from the fire station last weekend. Cait had not told him about the latest addition. She figured that once he saw this tiny girl, he couldn't say no! I guess we looked guilty cuz he says "why is there another dog in this house"? We tried to look innocent, guess it didn't work. He got mad and went out to check the pool. Cait got Liberti and took off after him, to try and convince him that YES, we do need six dogs! A little later I looked out and they were sitting by the pool, Liberti all wrapped up in daddy's jacket. When they finally came in the house, she was in his pocket. I'm guessing that means that she's staying. She is a mini doxie, her mom is a slick hair and dad is a wire hair. She has the thickest chocolate coat and under her neck, has teeny tiny little white long hairs starting to come in. She is soooo cute! And besides, we've never had a chocolate weinie dog! 
