Laughter, is it the best medicine?

They say that laughter is THE BEST medicine, in most cases it is. Plus it depends on what it is that is being laughed at.
I was on the phone tonight with my mother talking about the winter weather mix that we are supposed to get here over night, and I was reminded of a memory from when me and my sibblings and our parents lived in Nome , Alaska.
What triggerd the memory? Me telling her about the snow that Northern California is getting at this moment. We talked about my best friend who lives out that way, and my mom was wondering why my friend had not taken up skiing lessons.
My reply, she just isn't as much of a dare devil or risk taker as I am.I'll not tell you too much of what I HAVE done, because you might get more grey hairs than what you wanted.


I was your basic TOMBOY, a rough houser, I was one of those kids that would make you look
like you were gritting your teeth and sucking in air at the same time, you know,,,, the spit or proper word(eyes rolling) SALIVA that sits in the corner of your lips and when you suck in the air , the backwards slurping sound it maks?????
YES, that sound, you tried it didn't you to see i it was what I was talking about....LOL!!
Any way I was that type of kid, not that I have grown up much, because I haven't.
Well back to my story on the SNOW.
As I said my mother brought back a memory for me. When me nd my family lived in Nome Alaska, I'd have a blast in the winter time.
I have raised my FAIR share of the husky breed, and enjoyed that too.
I'm a dog fantic, well not quite that nuts , but close enough. And at night in the winter I'd ALWAYS take one of my dogs out for a nightly walk. If the street was slick enough I' slide along behind the dog having fun. But what happend next, I did not EVER expect to happen.
I was watching my feet slide on the road and watching for any on coming traffic, well all of a sudden my dog, CHINOOK gave my arm such a tug, I was glad i was able to keep my balance, because she had spotted a CAT! One she got me going on the slick road, I was hanging on for dear life of me and the cat.
She gave that stupid cat and good chase and my butt got a good beating from all the ice chunks embeded into the ice on the road. I can remember pulling and tuggng and calling the dogs name , fighting back the icy cold winds coming in off the bering sea, the tears in my eyes from the cold, and praying that no traffic was coming from either direction.
Now what does one do to stop you from allowing the runaway dog from slinging you around a corner as the cat runs to safety?
You PRAY for a miicle.
I did and I got on, a SNOWBANK. yup , I managed to some how to get my self to roll into that snow bank and stop. I laid there for a good while just trying to catch my breath, looking up at the sky, breathing in deep, and then cracking up at how much fun I had had! As I lay there laughing the dog comes back to me, panting like crazy,she sticks her cold husky nose on to my cheek of my face and gives me a lick to say "ok, lets get up and do that again".
I finally find my legs and slowly get up, while haning on to Chinook's collar, we made our way home and in the door.
Mom would frown most of the time when the dogs were let into the house, I never saw anything wrong with them being inside with us, i mean family is family , right?
To a kid anyway.
Well I enjoyed that so much the night before I could not wait till school ws out and night time got there.
So night fall comes, I ask Chinook if she is ready to go for her walk, of course she was all excited, jumping up and down, waiting for me to take her off her chain so she could RUN!
Well we made it once around the block as a walk, but the next time, well, it was a RACE, to see who could keep better traction and balance, me or the dog. I ended up in the same snow bank as the night before, not because I had to, because I lost the balance race.
So we did it one more time around the block and I made it around the corner that time.
I finally asked my Father, who was the Cheif of Police at that tim, back around 1973-75 I think, I asked him if there was any way he could buy a harness for Chinook,
because she needed to breath better for when we go racing. He laughed and asked me what I was talking about, so I told him and he went and bought her one the next day!
I thought it was just really cool and very TOUGH looking.
I had to show my dad what I was talking about the nigh the brought it home to me and Chinook. Well he got a great kick out of tha but was almost scared out of his wits, because he didn't know if I was going to make the corner turn or not. I did , but barely.
You do learn a lot about scrunching down , butt not to far off the ground, well slicked boots, a warm coat, warm gloves, a GOOD and active dog, but you also decide to choose the snow bank or stop by kickingyour feet out from under you and ride out the chunks of ice in the compacted icy road.