On the way home from school on Thursday afternoon (February 6th), Amber asked her daily question: "is the canal frozen enough to go ice skating?" For the first time in 2 weeks, the answer was yes! The weather had been windy and cold all day long, so the canal was frozen solid. I was feeling cold and tired just driving in that weather. To me, cold plus wind equals hide and hibernate. I can do either cold OR wind, but when they combine it is painful. Amber asked Rose if she would go ice skating with her, but Rose said no (ice skating is not Rose's favorite thing).
"I really want to go ice skating, but I don't want to go by myself," Amber lamented. As my motherly heart softened to the plea of my youngest child, my immediate future started looking frosty. Steeling myself, I volunteered as tribute and went ice skating with Amber.
It was so cold -- not cold and sunny or cold and calm; this was wintry stormy cold, with a steady wind blowing from the east, straight along the length of the canal. If it were a north or south wind, we would've been protected down in the canal, but this wind was uncooperative and relentless. It wasn't super strong (just 10-12mph), but it was steady--no calm patches or breaks from the blowing. The only good thing about the frigid windchill was that the canal ice was firm enough for afternoon skating, without any creaking or cracking.
I carried 3 of our skates in a backpack and a folding chair under one arm. Amber carried the one ice skate that didn't fit in the backpack, and a snow shovel to scrape the crusty layer off the ice if needed. We hiked across the street (with the arctic wind blasting our poor immediately chapped cheeks) and climbed down into the canal at our favorite spot. Tying on Amber's ice skates in the windchill about broke my fingers off, and then I had to do mine! I am really painting a painful picture here, but it was one of those mom moments where I was swallowing my selfish desire for warmth and giving some quality time to my daughter.
Since Amber grew out of our size 8 skates, she wore my size 10s and I wore Jeff's big size 12 skates. My skates were too big for Amber, and Jeff's skates were too big for me. It felt like I was skiing rather than skating, and my already limited on-ice agility was severely hampered.
Meanwhile, even with my too-big skates cinched and tied as tight as I could get them, Amber struggled to skate. She couldn't keep her ankles stiff no matter how tightly I tied the skates. Amber fell and skidded and wobbled frequently, and kept sitting down to rest. She was pretty frustrated that she couldn't keep her feet and ankles in the right position. I only fared slightly better. I windmilled my arms and seesawed my torso for a few rounds before getting more accustomed to Jeff's long large skates.
The wind bit our cheeks every time we skated east, and blew us faster every time we turned around and skated west. Slowing down and turning were way harder in my 4-sizes-too-big skates. To combat the windchill, I wore my down coat hood underneath my furry trapper hat with its chin strap fastened. It helped a lot, but every inch of skin that was exposed was stabbed repeatedly by the icy knives of that east wind. Amber announced that she was done after about 20 minutes. She took off her skates and played on the ice instead. I was finally figuring out how to move atop my massive skates, so I glided around for another ten minutes or so before packing up and hiking it in.
Hopefully Amber has at least one fond memory from our adventure!
1 comment:
I am shivering just reading about the arctic ice skating…you truly are a loving mother!
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