True confessions: Here's why I don’t ski or skate: I’m a klutz with a deep fear of slipping and falling

I’ve never been a fan of skiing or skating for a simple reason: I have a deep-seated fear of slipping and falling that in recent years has extended to an irrational fear of falling on slick surfaces.
Because of that, I’ve taken extra care the last several years while out jogging or walking to go really slowly on wet surfaces in the winter in case that surface turns out to be black ice. But I didn’t realize how deeply that fear had developed until it surfaced the other day, and morphed into a near-panic attack while on the way home from a 4-mile route.
Although the pavement was relatively dry when I started out, a steady drizzle had developed by the time I had reached a downhill stretch. Even though I knew the temperature was above freezing, meaning that I’d be jogging on wet pavement, I was surprised when my brain sent me a warning message that caused me to slow down to baby steps. And no matter how many times I told myself that I wouldn’t slip because the road was only wet and not icy, my fear of falling took over, and I walked very slowly the rest of the way down the hill.
The irrational fear of falling surprised me, but it amplifies something I knew 45 years ago when, while spending a winter in Vermont, I briefly tried cross-country skiing --- until I wound up spending far more time on the ground trying to pick myself back up than on the skis. Friends at the time had convinced me to try cross-country skiing; they said I’d like it, because I was an avid long-distance runner who had just done his first marathon. But none of that worked out, thanks to my fear of slipping and falling.
The same thing happened to me about 30 years ago, when my wife and I spent a weekend in Jackson, N.H. She’s a good skier and enjoyed doing cross-country, while I struggled mightily with just trying to stay on skis --- and once again I didn’t get far as I spent more time on my backside than I did on the (very) beginners’ cross-country track.
That’s why I don’t ski and why I dread hearing about a “wintry mix” forecast that includes sleet, rain, snow and ice.
It’s also why, before COVID changed everything, my wife and I had been planning to spend a few weeks of winter in a warmer climate, but that will likely never happen now since this never-ending pandemic will keep us limited until 2032 at the rate we’re going with all these damned new mutant variants of COVID-19.