Rollerblades and Road Rash

I guess I should start out by admitting that I am a huge klutz. Apparently I have absolutely no sense of balance and should not be allowed on rollerblades. Dale on the other hand is amazing. Tonight he was jumping benches and swerving in and out of basketball hoops with the grace of an olympian speed skater, while I was trying desperately to keep myself from eating gravel. We had the genius idea of taking up rollerblading a couple of weeks ago. It sounded completely harmless. We both knew I wasn't terrific, but thought if I practiced enough I would get the hang of it. So in our niaveness we went out and bought ourselves some brand new rollerblades. I will admit that we were trying to be smart and we also purchased me some nice knee pads and wrist guards. We've been out a few times and I've taken a few falls...more than I'd like to admit! Let's just say that my wrist guards are worn in :).


My rollerblades are the top ones and Dale's are the sleek black ones.


Well, tonight we went rollerblading with some friends, and we ended up at the top of a very LARGE hill. Hills terrify me...well, it's not actually the hill itself that scares me, but the speeding down and not being able to stop myself that sends shivers down my spine. Dale and I have conquered this problem in the past by tag teaming. He leads and I hold onto his waist and he guides us slowly down the hill. It's worked before, so once again we took off down the hill, Dale gracefully gliding and me clinging desperately to him. We started out pretty slow...but then we started going faster and faster until we were passing cars with ease. The only problem was that my feet couldn't quite keep up. I started wobbling and then just as we were nearing the bottom I lost control and tumbled to the ground, bringing Dale with me. I'm not quite sure what happened after that, except that Dale skidded and rolled, then came to a halt. He sat up with kind of a dazed look on his scratched up bleeding face, then jumped up and just shook it off. Poor guy, he got the worst of it. I'm not sure how I only managed a skinned elbow, because he's got a skinned face, knee and hip. The really sad part of all of this? It only makes me more determined to learn to rollerblade! So, instead of hanging up my skates and moving onto a sport that requires less coordination, we'll be back on the road as soon as we heal. Wish me luck!

Dale's battle wounds...all because he was trying to be a gentleman!



The pictures don't do it justice! What a sweet hubby I have!