When I was little, cross-country skiing was the bane of my existence. I had to drag the skis to school twice a week for PE - either I'd have to carry them or ski to school with them. I think we'd typically ski about a 8km over the double lesson length PE class. Neither my mom nor I knew how to wax the skis properly (actually my first school skis were wood that required tarring!) and somehow we always got it wrong: too much grip or too slippery. And as if skiing for PE wasn't bad enough, we also had a class incentive (pressure) system to track every km we skiied outside of school! I wasn't an athletic kid and all this skiing just wasn't my idea of fun at the time. The icing on the cake there was the annual day of torture and humiliation: the ski competition. All I remember from the actual competititions is that I felt physically ill going to school on those days and then hearing a lot of "latua!" all day. That is the phrase a skier behind you uses to ask to pass you. The results of the timed skiis were published for all the school to see. Naturally everyone would be curious to see who were at the top... and the bottom of the list. And guess where you'd find me: the bottom of my grade's list for 6 years running! Now fast forward about 40 years and the childhood trauma is all but forgotten. All of a sudden cross-country skiing seems like an enjoyable activity to me. Gone is the pressure of ski competitions and now I'm actually motivated to ski for exercise and for the enjoyment of a beatiful winter day and time outdoors. My husband Joel unfortunately doesn't share my enthusiasm. Nevertheless, one of the things I first shopped for (2nd hand... more about that in a future post), was a set of skis/boots for everyone in the family - even reluctant Joel.
Joel had gone skiing with me once, in Tahoe, and he wasn't a fan. (Aside: Skiing there is crazy expensive by Finnish standards: you have to rent a ski set and then separately pay for track access. In Finland the tracks are maintained by parks&rec and free to the public and I got my skis/boots/poles combo used for about 30 euros/person.) Now that we were in Finland and there actually was snow in southern part of the country after 2 years of snowless winters, I really wanted to go skiing with Joel again.
BEFORE
It worked twice: the first ski outing was a short loop near our house on Valentine's Day with the whole family. That involved a lot of drama by the kids so for Joel's second time skiing it was just the two of us. It was a gorgeous sunny day and the kids were still in school. We set off on a pretty flat course that wound its way through a forest within 10 minute drive from our house. Everything seemed fine at first. We were having fun and Joel was even dressed in a crazy outfit only he can get away with: blue top and orange shorts (!) over long johns reflecting his Broncos football team colors. We were only a few hundred meters into the route, when Joel started complaining about how boring cross-country skiing is. We were on completely flat ground with no one in sight, and out of nowhere Joel decided to spice the skiing up a bit: He jumped up on his cross-country skiis. And he came crashing down!!
At first I laughed at the sprawled out Joel but I then realized he'd actually hurt himself. He couldn't move his left arm! I couldn't believe you could actually fall/trip that badly on flat ground. Joel must be talented...and he wasn't used to these kinds of skis. From where he fell, Joel had to walk (and I skied) back to the start of the trail. We asked someone in the parking lot for recommendations on where to go to the doctor: they suggested a nearby hospital ER. Luckily (!) Joel had just gotten his "KELA" card in the mail the week prior. That is his Finnish universal healthcare card and it meant he could now get "free" care. It also meant that going to the hospital would be as easy as for any Finn. (I have no idea what the process would be for a tourist?) So off we went...
And AFTER...
When we got to the hospital we showed the KELA card to the ER receptionist (after taking a number and waiting for our turn for about 15 mins). There was no further paperwork and we weren't asked for any payment. The receptionist asked Joel about his pain level and actually gave him over-the-counter pain meds which we thought was nice and unusual in the sense that they administered drugs without Joel having had to fill out any special health history etc forms . We then waited for a while - masked, with Joel in his blue and orange shorts glory - and eventually he got seen by a doctor. She sent Joel off to get an x-ray and after waiting some more, he got called in for a diagnosis: a shoulder bone fracture! It took 3 hours from when we got to the ER for him to be sent home with an arm in a sling. He also got instructions to come back for a follow-up 12 days later. (When he went for that follow-up we found out he actually had two different fractures: no impact to treatment which was basically rest & time though.)
So there we were: Joel's desire to make cross-country skiing "more exciting" got him plenty of excitement! At least this fun didn't cost a lot: the ER copay bill that followed in the mail was only 18.50 Euros. Also, thanks to his goof-up, I would have to do all of the driving now. The bigger "cost" really was that Joel wouldn't get to fully enjoy our upcoming Easter trip to downhill ski up north at Ruka. I'm guessing I probably won't be able to talk him into cross-country skiing again any time soon...
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