Bruised

We've had some really nice weather over this mini Thanksgiving break, so I've taken the opportunity to put up my outdoor Christmas lights.  Since I had the ladder out, I decided to also clean the gutters that I could reach.  This is a particularly unpleasant task - I don't enjoy having to deal with the disgusting concoction of tree debris and dirty rainwater that inevitably blocks the gutters.  I could probably have asked my landlord to do this, but whatever.  But what I didn't take into account is the fact that the clear skies we've been having have caused the temperatures to drop below freezing overnight.  So the disgusting concoction was frozen solid.  In some ways this was good - bit easier to dispose of a block of ice than a soggy mess.  But conversely, it took a lot of work to actually get the ice free.  So I ended up probably spending more time up the ladder than I should have done - and my legs are really sore and bruised because I think I was leaning too heavily into the ladder to maintain my balance and to get the purchase to be able to break the ice.  Whoops.  But at least the gutters are clear now and my Christmas lights are up.