It is possible to sprint...

It’s been quite awhile since I have written anything, but yesterday was notable as a classic 2020 day….

I was at the barn helping a friend and hanging around with Minnie after taking her for a short walk. I was feeling kind of lazy so wasn’t too motivated to do much of anything. I had avoided cleaning the house successfully.

As I headed to my car to go home I noticed my friend was trying to hook her truck up to her trailer and seemed to be having a little trouble. I ambled over to take a look. The receiver for the ball wasn’t quite in the correct position so the ball hadn’t seated in the receiver. She jockeyed the truck in a different direction and then came back to take a look. She started lifting the trailer with the hand crank to try to seat it and that didn’t seem to be working so she cranked the trailer back down.

Then the ball disengaged completely from the truck. Then the truck began to roll away, straight toward a very nice car owned by another boarder… I started to run after the truck, thinking it was just rolling away in neutral, however the truck began to speed up and I found myself sprinting after it. To be clear, I am not a sprinter, nor do I run at all - a fast walk is my pace of comfort if I am ever in a hurry - which is rare. This is something I have in common with my horse. I think the last time I sprinted was 4 or 5 decades ago. But as described by my friend who was sprinting behind me I was now in a full elbow pumping sprint after the truck.

I managed to get along side the drivers seat and made a leap toward it catching the steering wheel and simultaneously pulling myself partially in the truck while cranking the wheel to the right to avoid crashing into the car as point of impact with it was upon us. The truck served to the right, making it impossible to get my self the rest of the way in.

With my butt hanging out of the truck and my right leg stuck underneath me I realized three things at the same time. First, I couldn’t step on the brake. Second the truck was still speeding up. Third, we were now aimed directly at the Porta Potty. The next thought was, “Oh god, that Porta Potty is really full… second thought was I had to get my other foot that was still out of the truck waving in the air onto the brake.

Through some miraculous burst of strength I swung my other leg into the truck with my butt still hanging in the breeze and slammed my foot on the brake. And then I just hung there.

Ok, all good, except I couldn’t move without recreating the impending disaster. Then I felt myself lift in the air as my friend in a burst of herculean strength of her own boosted me up by the rear and I plunked down in the seat and quickly shut the truck off.

So, that was memorable.

Lessons learned… don’t leave the truck in gear when you are hitching up a trailer… and it is possible to sprint when you are in your 60’s.