Nose for News by Sarah Stultz

 

As long as I can remember as a grown adult, I’ve been a little clumsy.

At least once or twice a year, I completely wipe out on the slippery sidewalks, sending anything I might be carrying flying.

I remember slipping and falling on the sidewalk once as I walked to my car from my house, sending my purse, my laptop bag and, worst of all, my breakfast shake to the ground.

Luckily, everything in my purse and my laptop bag were protected, but my shake was scattered all over. As I got up and went back inside to recover for a few minutes, I hoped none of the neighbors saw my spectacle. My pride was bruised, but otherwise I wasn’t in too much pain.

I’ve had two wipeouts so far this winter. One was as I walked my son to the edge of the driveway to wait for the bus a couple weeks ago and the other was inside the house just last week. I missed the first step on the way down and instead of just sliding down feet-first, I somehow managed to land head-first on my shoulder.

I was the only one home at the time other than our dog, and I just laid there on the floor, making sure I could move everything without too much pain before getting up and moving around.

It sure did hurt, and I’m still feeling small effects of that fall.

You better believe I’ve been holding the railing every time I’ve gone down the stairs since then.

Is anyone else like this, or is it just me?

I’m one of those people you’ll see with flailing arms trying to balance on slippery sidewalks. Ninety percent of the time I catch myself before I fall, but if you happened to be watching from nearby, you’d probably get a chuckle out of me trying to stay upright.

My husband always jokes that the clumsiness in our children came from me, as he has witnessed several of my falls firsthand.

I dislike winter for many reasons, with this being one of them.

As we dive headfirst into winter, offer a hand to those of us who seem to be struggling — who you see walking with baby steps from their car to their destination or who have flailing arms — and feel free to put a little more ice melt down, too. I know I’ll be getting more for our house, as well.

As I reflect upon this curse I’ve seemed to develop over the years, I’ve learned two things that I’m going to try to keep in mind this winter: First, I’m going to try to keep a better eye on where I’m walking; second, I’m on the hunt for some shoes with a better grip.

It’s going to be a long winter.

Sarah Stultz is the managing editor of the Tribune. Her column appears every Tuesday.