Humble yourself, mudslider

Humility does either one of two things: it sneaks up on your and whispers in your ear or it makes itself known with a bullhorn at the least convenient moment.

Especially when you wipe out in your front yard.

But I received both kinds. My foolish spill was unseen but I was feeling humility as I became the penitent woman of God.

The story starts with my father departing from our driveway with my grandmother in the car, taking her home after a visit for the holiday. As they turned onto the tar and chipped road, my mother and I noticed they had left without some items for my Grandmother and I quickly used the front porch light like an S.O.S. blinker on a ship to catch their attention.

The crafty military thinking was a success and they pulled back into the driveway as I threw on my mother's size 9 tennis shoes and scampered out in the rain that that poured all day long rather than the seasonal fluffy substance known as "snow" (real snow is found in Edinboro, when you get it by the buckets, rather by a sprinkle here and there from the sky, but that's another story).

Where was I? Oh yes, scampering...well, scampering turned into a good jog out to the car. After placing the items in the backseat, I turned back towards the house scampering at even a quicker rate. Some might call it running. I like to call it scampering, it has a youthful feeling to it.

I've never been big on math, not quite a buff or pro, but I think we can predict the answer to this formula.

rain all day long + size 9 shoes on a size 6 foot + "scampering" + mud factor

So I'm taken by surprise when the shoe twists backwards and twists my ankle in that uncomfortable fashion, the one where you saw "oh shoot, it really hurts, it's not broken, but it really hurts, dang, I hate when this happens" and I made I terrific slide in the mud via kneecap.

My second thought, after the first being "ouch squared", was "oh Lord, may no one happen to witness that". Thankfully, no one did as I hobbled to the house and torn between laughing and crying, but muddy knee caps don't lie. Besides, laughing won, and oh, it still continues.

My foot is still tender today. And I keep laughing every time I feel it.

Humility - it keeps your feet on the ground, and sometimes brings you to your knees.