You marking me?

That is what the athletic Australian dude said to me in the pool – He said it again, or more like half-yelled it with a little disbelief and disdain thrown in – “You marking me?”

“For as long as I can”  I finally answered and my mind raced around the track of how I got here.

Here is:  Playing a game of football in a pool in Cancun. This did not seem possible – I mean regular people don’t go to Cancun – We go to *Hampton Beach or some other dinky-little-past- its-prime tourist ghetto. We upgrade from McDonald’s to Red Robin and think we are living the dream.

We don’t end up in a pool in Mexico trying to out-swim an Australian—especially one with twenty less years and thirty less pounds of body fat on him.  I think by “marking him”, he means “covering him” – which is indeed what I am trying to do because his team is destroying my team.

This madness must stop – I am going to give it all I got. I could not “mark” him for too long, but at least he went back to his section of the pool.

And my mind is still racing.

Two week-long hospital stays for me with the last one including major surgery since this trip was booked.

There was also about three weeks of recent on and off hospital time for my wife – waiting until two days before we leave before the doctor gives his blessing on the trip. She was in real bad shape only a month ago. We must be insane to leave the United States at a time like this.

We were insane – this is not practical- this is not a good choice.

And we are not financially secure enough to do this: we are just at the point that we are starting to turn the tide – instead of the wolf barking at the door – he is out in the drive-way yelping. But he ain’t going away for a few years yet, even if we stay on track.

What will our neighbors think? – What will our family think?

We should be home and miserable.

This is insane.

My wife simply stated that we have no idea what the future will bring and that we have never been anywhere tropical and that her one wish for this family is we do that please-and that we do it now, while we still can.

So that is how I found myself on the blue team for gametime in a pool in Cancun. We got shellacked by the red team by the way. I mean – you must be crazy to try an’ out-swim an Australian, right?

Yeah, we were crazy.

And we still are.

Thanks to my wife for making us take the best vacation this family has ever had.

*Hampton Beach, New Hampshire – a dinky-little-past-its-prime tourist ghetto.