Hello, My Name is Kerry and I am an Idiot

You've all heard me complaining about the cold and snow. A lot. Because it snowed a lot here and also it's cold and I do not find that particular combination of meteorlogical events to be particularly wonderful. You may not know that I have been attempting to improve my attitude about snow--or maybe I mentioned that. I can't remember exactly because I'm on pain killers right now (that was the upside of today--the doctor gave me the good stuff). Why am I on pain killers? Because in an effort to improve my attitude about winter, I went sledding today and broke my back. I thought that if I did enjoyable winter activities, I would enjoy winter more. Yeah. Thankfully, I didn't break my back very badly--I just have mild compression fracture in one of my vertebra. Not bad enough to require a brace or any kind of major medical intervention, just bad enough to hurt like hell. And now that that particular vertebra is compressed, it will never un-compress. This is the kind of fracture that old ladies with osteoporosis get and that make them shorter. So at the ripe old age of 33, I now have my first one and Moses estimates I'm about a millimeter shorter than I was before. All this because I was really trying my darnedest to have fun in winter. From here on out, I'm swearing off down-hill winter sports. If I can ever move again I might, might try snow-shoes on level ground. Otherwise, I'm just hunkering down some good books and few movies for the duration.
If you're wondering about the idiot part: I sustained this injury by sledding down and icy slope with a bump in it. I did my best to avoid the bump by choosing a path well away from the bump. When I noticed that I was heading toward the bump, I tried to steer by leaning away from it which had the effect of shooting me directly toward the bump--which now that I give this some consideration makes sense, but while hurtling down the hill at a million miles per hour didn't occur to me. I then failed to bail out of my sled in time which resulted in my hitting the bump, catching air, and coming down hard on my back. Not my most graceful moment (not that I really have a lot--or maybe any--graceful moments). Another interesting note: I am not the only idiot in town. There were at least five other people in the emergency room with an injury similar to mine and the nurse told me that in winter they average 22 sledding-related accidents per day. I also learned that when sledding you should lay down (back or stomach) and not sit up, and should also wear a helmet (just for the record, I did not hit my head).