“Life can be like a roller coaster…
And just when you think you’ve had enough,
and your ready to get off the ride and take the calm, easy merry-go round…
You change your mind, throw you hands in the air
and ride the roller coaster all over again.
That’s exhilaration…that’s living a bit on the edge…that’s being ALIVE.”

— Copyright © 1999 Stacey Charter

A few random observations and thoughts from our day at Adventureland yesterday.

• I watched a man carry his wheel-chair bound mother onto one of the rides. He showed compassion. She showed courage.
• 

  7 pink flamingos, 3 exhausted kids, 2 neon raccoons, a floppy dog, and a monkey in a banana.

  It’s informative to watch people drop things, look at them, and walk away. Certainly, it explains all the trash in the parking lot at the end of the day.

• Senior citizens can be great employees at an amusement park, but not when they’re tired.
• Seven pink flamingos, a dog, two raccoons, and a monkey in a banana should be enough stuffed animals for any family in one day.
• Skee-ball carny’s who say “You made your daughters very happy,” make a dad feel very, very happy.
• I saw a lifeguard with a bionic leg. Inspiring.
• Funnel cake has to be one of the all-time great foods.
• Watching mothers yell at their children in public makes me wonder what they will do behind closed doors.
• There’s little to share with your children if they are on the rides while you are on the bench.
• Helping a park employee learn to solve a Rubik’s cube is an exercise in futility.
• “That’s not happening again.” is my new favorite quote from my wife. It means that you’ll never get me on that ride again in this lifetime.
• Seeing dry rot on a roller coaster is not reassuring.
• Who orders a veggie burger at an amusement park? Well, I did.
• Going upside-down on a roller coaster at my age is perilous. Doing it three times is ridiculous.
• Teenage employees can be awesome or lousy. Just like any-aged employee.
• Water parks inside amusement parks make for happy children.
• Getting a phone call of appreciation from the newly-minted 2012 Toastmasters’ World Champion of Public Speaking (and possibly the youngest ever) while you’re standing in line at the Space Shot ride like a commoner is humbling. Story later.

It can be scary, exhilarating, intimidating, and fast. It can turn you upside down and inside out. It can jerk you around. That’s a roller coaster. And that’s life.

It may be terrifying, but it beats sitting on the bench waiting for the ride to be done.

Yesterday’s gift of time … Rode all the amusement park rides with my kids; picked up trash in the parking lot afterwards; helped a park employee with a Rubik’s Cube; made my daughters happy by spending ridiculous amounts of time winning stuffed animals; drove everyone to the park and back. … It was a good day.