I was out for dinner with Lisa last night and we got to talking about stupidity. Not other people's this time, but our own general ineptness.

It's always fun, sharing tales of how dumb you are with your loved one. But for some reason, I get the feeling that my bouts of stupidity seem to eclipse hers to a large extent. Lisa would relate a tale and I would nod, saying 'Yup, I can see how that happens.' Then I would tell a tale and she would laugh and laugh and laugh...

Let me give you a 'for instance'. Set your Way-Back Machine to about twenty years ago. It's the deep of winter and I'm eight years old. I'm out tobogganing with my friend Steve and some of his friends.

It's just a small hill in a little play area near Steve's house. The hill took all of maybe 10 seconds to slide down, but it was enough. So we're trudging up the hill and sliding back down. Very Norman Rockwell.

Down at the bottom of the hill was one of those odd slide/monkey bar combinations, with a set of stairs joining the two in the middle. Short and stout, a good obstacle.

Okay, so I'm at the top of the hill, and I hop on my toboggan (face-first, of course) and go sliding on down.

Swoosh. I glance up and notice that my course is heading right towards the end of the slide from one side. Now this was one of those old plastic sleds with no steering capacity at all, so I did the best thing I could think of at the time. Duck.

Swish. Somehow, I manage to to slide underneath the slide and out the other side. Looking back at my track, I must have missed it by inches.

Here's the stupid part.

I take my toboggan back up the hill, put it back in the same track and announce to everyone, "Hey! Watch me!"

This time, I forget to duck.

Whammo!

It's amazing how shock and cold combine to mask any injury. I got up, shook myself off and went back up the hill. We played for a few more minutes, before I pulled my hood off and Steve said, "Hey Phil! Your head's bleeding."

I reach up and touch it. So it is. Quite a bit actually. I think I started running towards Steve's house at that point, but for the life of me, I can't remember a single thing after that point.

For some reason, Lisa finds this story inordinately funny.

What do you think?

What was the last thing you said?

Bored. Next?

Take me home, big fella