I volunteered for a tour of duty at work and am traveling around Alberta helping out with various computer things. I don’t mind the work considering the Free vehicle, free meals, free hotel, free fuel… you get the idea. It also gives me the opportunity to see parts of my province I have never seen before or haven’t seen since I was a kid.

I am enjoying the work but I am enjoying the free stuff more. The hotel I am staying in has everything. Pool, Hot tub, food, exercise room, king size bed, kitchenette, and you can still smell the fresh paint on the walls. It’s just that new, I didn’t actually smell the walls.

Tonight really took me back a few years. I decided to go for a swim. Being a few years older, several pounds heavier, and a whole lot more self-conscious. Lucky for me the pool was empty. So in I went… the water was the perfect temperature and just enough chlorine to not quite melt my skin off. Off in the corner was the water slide. A perfect three turn spiral, solid tube from top to bottom, and that perfect trickle of water coming out the base. Now I haven’t been on a waterslide in 10 years and nearly 50 pounds. I forgot how fun waterslides are. The rush of air as you glide down on your back in the darkness, around and around. However being as it was 10 years and 50 pounds ago I didn’t take into account the fear that has been instilled in those years and the amazing speed you can build up with those extra pounds for gravity to pull on. There I am flying down at what I was sure at the time was mach 3, screaming with glee, then skipping across the water at the bottom filling my nose and lungs full of water. So what to do now that I am gasping for air as the water flows from my lungs? Grin like a fool and go again, What else?! It was so much fun and I am sure who ever was working the front desk was getting a good laugh on the Closed circuit cameras.

If you haven’t done something like this in years… now is the time. Go find something you liked to do as a kid and do it, it’ll add years to your life and a smile to your face.