Golf of Mexico

October is drawing to a close. In a few short days, it’ll be Halloween. Halloween used to be my favorite holiday and I still love it, though it’s been replaced in the Favorite category by Thanksgiving.

This year, I will be spending Halloween at the home of my friends Kurt and Amy and their fabulous boys, Berg and Kai. I’ve adopted Berg and Kai as my nephews since my brother had both girls and I wouldn’t get a chance to be an uncle without boyz. Besides that they are super cool kids.

The boyz are dressing as pirates for Halloween. I’m particularly glad of their choice of costumes. Because they are going to be pirates, I know they will be out on their pirate ship the next day and will protect me in my swim in the Gulf of Mexico. I know Pirates aren’t known for protecting people but I would bet that even a pirate will protect someone he loves… and besides, I have no treasure to pillage except the love I have for these boys and they can have all of that they can handle.

The day after Halloween, I will work off the Halloween candy I won’t be eating by swimming with 2200 of my very best new friends in the Gulf. You see, I misread the travel brochures… and thinking it was the Golf of Mexico, I thought it was a lot like swimming in those poo poo balls at McDonalds or Chucky Cheese. But alas, it is real water and salty to boot.

With me on this swim will be a little boy who is very, very sick. I have laminated his photo and will carry it close to my heart. My struggle is nothing compared to his and I will give him whatever strength it brings me to complete this swim-bike-run. If you have a little extra strength of your own, please use it to hold out the best and highest good for a certain sweet little boy and his family.

When I finish the swim, my pirate friends will be cheering me on while I ride the bike… their Mommy’s bike, actually. And after that, the run… or walk… or crawl, whatever it is by then.

And then there is the day after this event… the day after the culmination of a year’s worth of learning to swim (and doing little else in the way of workouts)… it will be Berg’s birthday. And oh, what a celebration that should be. In a way, it’s my birthday too… because this race is all about my birthday and meeting a new challenge as I start my 45th year.

Vacation… much needed and much fun. It doesn’t get much better than that.