And she's off . . .

. . . her rocker, that is. Thought it was about time to venture outside with the new outdoor roller skates. I looked pretty cool, didn't I, sitting on the toilet wearing my gear in a previous post? Yeah, yeah, I'm cool. And it was pretty nifty skating around the house on the hardwood floors that one day a couple weeks ago. After all, my dad was a professional roller skater and my mom and sister nearly so.

I am back home now (obviously) safe but no more sound than when I left. I would say my first outdoor skating experience lasted about, oh let's say, maybe ten minutes. Keep in mind that I NEVER skated outdoors as a child and haven't been on skates in a rink in probably over thirty years.

I'm happy to say that there weren't many people out there to view my performance and not a single driver hurtled off the bridge above me while gawking. I also have my first fall behind (get it?) me. Nothing serious, just went down on my left hip while nearly standing still. As always before, I continue to be a bit unbalanced.

Thought I'd share with you a few of the thoughts I had in the course of the event:

"I know Heather said rocks could be deadly but I didn't think that included sizes less than four millimeters."

"Didn't realize last week when I walked this route with Peanut that some is blacktop and some is sidewalk and THEY ARE DIFFERENT. And, hey, the sidewalk has CRACKS."

"Whoa, this part didn't LOOK like it went downhill!"

And afterword:
"Who'd have thought elbows could sweat this much?"

After getting back to the car and stripping off the gear I realized that I was yawning almost non-stop. Possibly because I had held my breath the entire time I had the skates on.

And one final thought:
No matter whether your sister, mom or aunt tells you otherwise, it isn't like riding a bike and outside is never going to be the same as a nice, wooden rink floor.