The "Me Being an Idiot" series has quickly become a regular feature and fan favourite here at Xave's Xlog (see Me Being an Idiot #1 and Me Being an Idiot #2), and today that series continues.
The Set-Up: as devotees know, I partake in the ultra-Canadian pastime of using frozen water and shoes with blades attached as a form of transportation every day. Unfortunately for people who crave efficiency (i.e. me), the Rideau Canal only has entry points every so often, and even though I live literally less than 30m from it, I have to walk either 5 minutes in the good direction or 3 minutes in the bad direction to access it. So, several days after I started skating to school, I just said screw it and started climbing over the fence and jumping down 1.5m directly across the road.
This was working great and saving me 5 sweet, sweet minutes every day... until today. Now, usually when I perform my leap of faith, there's nobody around. This is because it's either in the early morning, it's too cold, or it's just not that popular a stretch on the canal, so there aren't many people around.
Today was different.
It was fairly warm today (-10... okay, at least not as cold as many other days), and I didn't head to school til about 2:30, meaning high school students might have been on the canal, and in general lots of people like to enjoy the mid-afternoon sun. One guy in particular seemed interested in my escapade, and slowed to the point where he was pretty much standing there and watching.
Now, before I tell you what happened I should mention that I had a rehearsal today and was carrying my trombone. This meant I had to jump down with trombone in hand, since I couldn't throw it down ahead of me, or leave it on the other side of the fence (since the bars weren't spaced out enough to grab it and pull it through, as I could do with my skates).
Anyway, I assume you've already guessed what happened. I jumped, my foot got caught on the ledge, becoming a pivot point, I rotated 90 degrees in the blink of an eye, and I landed on my side. To be more specific, I landed on my trombone. Which was a good thing in that I didn't get the least bit hurt, but it was a bad thing in that I landed on my trombone. And about half of Ottawa saw it. I'm sure the dude who was specifically watching was totally unsurprised. Nobody asked me if I was okay... which I'm cool with.
It must have looked pretty clumsy. Picture a guy crouching awkwardly on a ledge, clinging to the fence because there isn't much room to stand and what room there is is covered by sloped ice, making it near-impossible not to slip, and then he does slip, limbs flail wildly, and he thuds to the ground on top of the trombone he was carrying. Or maybe he was trying to jump. It must have been hard to tell.
Fortunately, after rehearsing and not noticing any ill effects, it seems this adventure turned out a bit better than Me Being an Idiot #1 and 2.
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