I know it’s not a dream, because I’ve been out on my skis a couple of times this week. I had an irrational fear that I would be totally uncoordinated and unable to ski, so that has been put to rest. But I’m realizing that these things don’t have brakes as nice as my scooter, despite practicing snowplowing in the alley for a half hour this morning.  (I only landed on my butt once though.) I’m coming to appreciate that emergency release on my skijor belt more and more with each slow, sliding stop.

Today I decided to just hang around in the backyard on the skis with the Mush Puppies to help put to rest my other irrational fear – that they would be terrified of these strange appendages suddenly appearing on my feet. The last time Squash met the skis, he was wee:

And he wasn’t scared of them at all. At that time, I hadn’t bothered introducing them to Maisy because I hadn’t unlocked her secret potential yet.

So today I essentially practiced turning around over and over in the backyard while the Mush Puppies frolicked. They didn’t really care. They didn’t care SO much that they didn’t even look at me twice and went about their normal business of chasing and wrestling each other. When I called Squash over, he watched me for a minute, then tried to catch the ski tips, and then immediately got the zoomies all over the yard. When I called Maisy over, she got the “Come? Never have I heard that word!” look on her face and went back to digging in the snow for whatever she digs in the snow for.

So I guess that puts THAT fear to rest. And we are on our way. You don’t have to pinch me, I know it’s true: This winter I’ll finally get behind these dogs on skis.