When I was very young, I was terrified of large bodies of water including swimming pools.  Part of my fear came from the fact that my mother was scared of water and always preached to me how I could easily drown if I wasn't careful around water.  She was so terrified of water that even standing on a beach, far away from the shore, was extremely difficult for her.  So, she passed that fear on to me at a very early age.  It is very difficult to fear water if you want to be active and involved in organizations.  For instance, I joined the boy scouts and when we went to summer camp, I would stand on the pool deck and simply watch as the other scouts had fun splashing about in the pool.  For a ten year old it is a difficult thing not to be able to join in on the fun.  But my fear of water kept me firmly planted safely away from the water.   I was told at the end of the camp, that if I did not learn how to swim that future summer camp participation would be difficult and in fact, I would never be able to successfully progress as a scout because swimming was required.  And so when I left summer camp that year, I thought I might never return.  But then fate intervened.

One of the worst ways to start your day is having your car serviced.  For one, even though you are there for a specific reason and you know how much it is going to cost, inevitably, the guy behind the counter comes out and suggest that you get other things fixed. 

And then there is that smell - kind of a mixture of new tires, oil and coffee.  But its not all bad though. Despite the fact that you end up spending an arm and a leg, you really never who you are going to run across.  And today, for me, was one of those days. 

When I was a kid I tried to stay out of trouble.  But like most kids, trouble typically found me.  I don't know what I was thinking on that hot summer day back in 1967.  I was just a ten year old kid, out having fun.  On that particular day, most of my friends were not around.  I don't know what happened to them, but after realizing they weren't out and about, I figured I had to find ways to have fun by myself.  And that, is where my troubles began.