Coldest March in 122 Years

This morning, my radio told me that we are experiencing the coldest March in 122 years. I feel so special to be included. I bought my Easter tulips at the market today while miniscule flakes were blowing in the wind. It looks like we'll have a white Christmas Easter after all.

Friday and Monday are holidays in Germany, so I'm off to my four day weekend (with guests!). Don't be jealous --  I'll be working while you're eating turkey and shopping in November.

Happy Easter!

Celsius

I parked my butt on the ground.

I almost escaped "winter" (October - March) without falling. Almost. The sad thing is that despite all of the almost-wipeouts, this one had basically nothing to do with snow or ice.

After a perfectly normal Sunday walk with my German, we were in the homestretch to his place. With the apartment in sight, the wind picking up, and temperature dropping, I had to pick up my pace to match his longer-legged stride as we neared the warmth of the indoors.

Naturally, I continued rattling on about what I was rattling on about. Fittingly, I think I was talking about a new word I learned, ätzend, which basically means "bummer" or "that sucks", but with a more intense feeling. Suddenly I was sitting on the ground. You can't make this stuff up.

It happened so fast, I didn't even know what happened until I looked at my feet and saw them lassoed together in one of those white plastic packing strips. You know the kind that come around cardboard boxes that should be properly disposed of? I have no idea what they are actually called, but they kind of look like these white stripes in the image to the right.

Whatever they are called, they definitely didn't belong on the sidewalk. And I'm thinking the white strips may have been camouflaged by the snow. I did not care to return to the scene to check.

As I sat on the ground stunned, it took me a few seconds to realize what happened. About as long as it took my male companion to realize I was no longer by his side.

"Are you ok? Are you hurt? What happened?"

"Yes, I think I'm ok." I didn't see any holes in my leggings. "Only my pride is hurt." I wiped away a tiny tear hidden by my sunglasses. "I got stuck in one of these white thingees."

"You parked your ground butt on the ground."

Thankfully, I am properly trained in falling from my many years of playing sports. And in that split second where I didn't think but only reacted, I not only tucked and rolled, saving myself from injury, but also managed to toss a small paper bag thus saving our delicate bunny-shaped bakery treat.

In that moment, I was feeling what I think most children experience when they "hurt" themselves. In theory I was fine, but I was shocked and scared and confused.  I started to laugh. But then wanted to cry. Which only made me laugh more.

"You have to be careful where you're walking." German compassion doesn't seem to last very long.

"People need to be more careful about throwing away their garbage!"

What makes it almost worse is that last fall (no pun intended) this almost happened. That time only 1.5 feet managed to get stuck and my German caught me as I catapulted forward. Of course he doesn't remember this.

"Maybe you'll end up in a fail compilation video," he offered up. Maybe. I secretly wish I could have seen it happen. If anyone sees something like this on Youtube, please let me know :)