Oh boy. Last weekend I was at the house we've bought and decided to go out to the backyard and take the ugly, damned wire off the stump of the old satellite dish. The weather was a snow/rain mix.

Out the back door, down the steps. REALLY down the steps.

In addition to other things, the previous owners had painted the steps with glossy paint. In a snow/rain mix this makes these steps slicker'n oiled snot.

I didn't fall. I did some sort of arabesque, missed a couple of steps, and caught the railing with my left hand. (By the way, I was wearing lugged sole hiking shoes.)

That was Saturday. On Monday I went to the doctor as I couldn't raise my left arm above shoulder level without pain. Diagnosis: badly, badly strained deltoids, where they connect at the shoulder joint, and "why you didn't tear them I don't know."

So I'm on Vioxx and ice and rest for another week and I haven't been able to do the moving of stuff that I wanted to.

Oh, yeah. I did remove the ugly wires and things. They're in the trash. And I plan to fix the slick steps as soon as I can.