Close to the edge

People of a certain age, who may have flirted with "prog rock" back in the 1970's will recognize the term "Close to the Edge" as the title of a record by the group "Yes". It was a particular favorite of mine, even now evoking nostalgia for a simpler time when all I had to worry about was whether my Latin teacher would notice that I had forgotten to translate the 10 pages of Cicero's Pro Lege Manilia assigned, or if the young lady I had noticed at the tennis courts on Saturday would ever notice my existence.
Unfortunately, as luck would have it, the teacher did notice, gave me an extra 10 pages for my trouble, and if that was not punishment enough, insisted that once translated into English, I should then translate the English into French. As for the young lady, I never had any reason to think she was aware of my existence. Who knows what might have happened had she done so. As far as that was concerned, I never came anywhere close to the edge.
Anyway, I had good reason to recall that album title this morning. We ventured out early, as usual, myself and the dog, (Canis in Latin, or Chien in French - evidence that a classical education has not been wasted). Lily insisted that we take the scenic route along the river bank and I thought, well why not, its a lovely morning.  As she was nosing around in the bushes, I tried to tread carefully to avoid the mud patches when all of a sudden, my feet gave way and down towards the water I slipped. I won't repeat the barrage of Latin expletives that poured forth from my lips, but suffice to say, you won't find any of them in Cicero's speeches.
So what have I learned so far today? In matters of Latin homework and dog walking along the  bank of a river, its probably not a good idea to tread to close to the edge. In matters of the heart, well, I will leave that up to you.