Skiing

I love skiing.  I really do, but it requires a lot of skill.

I went skiing recently, and I learned two very important lessons the hard way.

1.  Don't let stray porcupines leave the trees.

2.  You cannot get distracted by anything; I repeat, ANYTHING while skiing, without it ending in disaster.

I'm going to start with the second rule.  I was skiing through the trees, which, by the way, is really fun.

I looked back for a moment, and here's what happened.

Yes, I hugged the boulder and flipped over the top of it.  Next thing I knew, I was lying in the snow.

The first rule, you may think, is quite strange, and I agree with you.  Let me tell you the story.

 My sister-in-law spotted it first.

This is what we saw:

Okay, yeah, you're probably thinking:  Who cares?  Well, we did.

We decided to pay a visit to our rodent friend.

Turns out it was a porcupine.

And then later...

Sure enough, our little friend (who we named Stanley) was scared to death, trying to escape the constant flow of skiers.  We wanted to help, but there was nothing we could do.  It's not like we could've just jumped off the lift and saved it!