Freefall

Ok, last curling related story for a good long while, I promise. As is evident by the lack of feedback and slight dip in traffic, no one really cares for curling stories. On the upside, this may actually amuse those of you who enjoy seeing me humiliated or in pain.

Here's the think about curling – it's played on ice. That means odds are you're going to slip and fall at some point. So far this season I'd managed to avoid that. However, I did slip and go down Friday night in a game. I didn't hit the stone nor did I hurt myself because it wasn't that bad of a fall. Everyone asked if I was all right, I laughed, dusted myself off and said I was fine and went back to playing.

Now on Sunday, we had a different matter all together.

It was the sixth end of the final game. The one for the big money. It was a close game and we were only up by one point with the other team were lying two buried behind a guard. Our skip was going to throw some big weight and hope to clear out all three opposing rocks. The shot is coming down nicely, we've been yelled at to sweep and I'm merrily sweeping my guts out to try and keep the rock on line. We're about 10 feet away from the big kaboom.

This is the moment that my watch falls out of the fleece I was wearing.

I don't normally wear my wrist watch when I know I'm going to do be doing a lot of sweeping. It hurts my wrist sometimes. So I just throw it in my jacket pocket and zip it up. However, I must have forgotten to zip up the coat the last time I checked my watch for the time. So it falls out, I don't notice and it lands right in front of me and I then proceed to step on it.

This is the point where I became airborne. Honestly, I was vertical and the next thing I know I'm several feet in the air. Everyone tells me it looked quite spectacular, one of the better falls seen in recent history at the club.

Oh, and of course, this is the game that Cathy decides to attend. She was very impressed and said it was almost graceful. Almost.

So anyway, the watch has rocketed about 50 feet away, I'm hit the ice with an impressive Thud. I'm just a touch disoriented and people are rushing up to me asking if I was ok. And my response to these questions is to ask what the fuck happened to the shot because I didn't hear the big kaboom that normally comes with rocks hitting each other at high velocity. That was kind of amusing, actually, in a Marx Brothers sort of way. Everyone kept asking if I was ok and I kept not responding because I was too busy asking what had happened to the shot and so on, and so forth.

It actually took me about a minute to get a straight answer that I had kicked it when I was going down.

This lead to several minutes of me cursing and venting because it was big shot at the time. But in retrospect it was pretty funny. Cathy has been teasing me and saying I was going to be in a lot of pain after that fall because I did go down hard. But that hasn't happened yet, perhaps because I have too many other aches and pains vying for my attention today.

Oh, and our skip did a draw on his next shot to salvage the end and take one. And obviously we won the game, so all's well.

You know, except for my pride.

Oh yes, one last thing...the watch is fine. So if you need a watch that can survive being dropped on the ice, stepped on, rocketed half way across a curling rink and then thrown in disgust at the floor, then I recommend a Guess Steel watch. Kept right on ticking. Good for pressures up to 100 metres and being used as a hockey puck at a curling rink.