Adventures and Misadventures in Sledding

We did some hard-core sledding today, on the property of an apple orchard with a very generous owner who lets the whole town sled, hike trails, and, because he's something of a lefty, come visit his "peace pole," which displays the word "peace" in all kinds of languages. [He was also one of Obama's supporters early on, back when Princess Hillary was still heir apparent to the throne, and Obama has actually made a historic campaign visit to the orchard.] Very nice man, whether you like his politics or not, very beautiful estate, and much of the town comes to sled.

Today's late-afternoon turnout consisted of youngsters ranging from roughly 10 to 18 or 19 - we were among very few single-digit children in the mix. Daniel fared spectacularly, slowly, methodically pulling his sled up the hill, finding a well-settled trail of reasonable length, and pushing off with a small grin and a look of exertion and determination on his extremely rosy-cheeked face.

Ian was more the dispirited opposition, trudging along, picking barely settled trails (or none) and pushing off only to go a few feet at a time before needing another push. I pushed where I could, but it didn't help much, and he didn't seem to like my advice that he simply follow after Daniel and do whatever he's doing.

However, when we got home, Ian was a good sport about it. He told Amy, "Daniel was the best at sledding. He did better than all of the bigger kids, including me."

(December 27, 2010)