Attack Of The 8 Foot Icicle

By Kris Kelly
CW50 Community Affairs Manager

Blame it on Facebook. Or the Polar Vortex. Or that crazy urge for one-up-man-ship. But if it weren't for those three things, I'd be fine right now.

This winter's record-breaking snow and bitter cold has definitely left its mark.  My little yard is buried in snow and my little house is covered in icicles.  One of them was huge, dangling like a stalactite from the corner of my roof almost reaching the ground.

I was quite content to ignore the monster icicle until a friend from Scotland posted pictures of the crocus growing in her yard on Facebook.  Somehow that didn't seem fair.  She gets flowers, I get ice.  I thought I should show off the icicles growing in my yard, so I went outside to take a picture I could post.  Unfortunately, that just made me more curious about the monster overtaking my eaves.

I walked up to it, looked it up and down, and tapped on it once…just like you would wrap on a door.  That was all it took.  With a snap and a crack, the icicle broke off and barreled downward.  It honed in on the top of my foot like ICBM missile, landed with a thud, then fell over into pieces.  My foot exploded into pain.

I limped back into the house and yanked off my boot.  No blood, No broken skin, No broken bones…at least, none that I could see.   That was good, but I figured a trip to Urgent Care was in order to check out the parts I couldn't see.

The ladies at Birmingham Royal Oak Urgent Care were delightful.  Everyone wanted to see the "Attack Icicle" so I showed off the picture to all who stopped by.  They examined my poor foot, took X-rays, wrapped it up and told me to RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation).  No breaks were found but I have a follow-up appointment with an orthopedic surgeon just to be sure.

I'm sure there's probably a lesson for me in this story, I don't know what it is.  The only thing I keep hearing in my head is "it's time to move to Florida."  Why Florida?  Because last week in the midst of our Polar Vortex, it was the only state that didn't have snow.