Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Roller coasters are thrilling

OK, so I love roller coasters. This wasn't always the case. Honestly, I was terrified of them as a kid. Up until I was about 15, the only roller coaster I had ever been on was "Puff" the little kiddie roller coaster at Lagoon (our local amusement park). Not only had I never been on one, but I vehemently refused any time anybody asked me to go. They finally got me on the "old roller coaster" at Lagoon but I went literally Kicking and Screaming.

Actually, as I think about my history, it's a bit of a lie...I "accidentally" went on Space Mountain at Disneyland when I was 8. We were at Disneyland and my dad saw the "People Movers" wandering around Tomorrowland (those boxy little things that give you a tour of tomorrowland). They vanished inside a wall and so he thought that was where the ride was. We hopped in line (my little brother, my dad and me) and found ourselves strapped into a rocketing roller coaster in the dark. None of us were happy at the outcome. Perhaps that is what created my fear of roller coasters for the next 7 years.

Anyway, I changed my tune and became a roller coaster freak in my latter teens, riding roller coasters from coast to coast looking for big thrills. I broke 3Gs in Florida, rode some wild dragon coaster in Virginia, hit the "collosus" in California (much better than our Utah Collosus even though there are no loops). Yessir, I had definitely been converted to roller coaster lover.

Sadly, the same is not true of life's roller coasters. If the past 2 weeks or so were converted to a roller coaster, the thrill of the ride would be intense, possibly too intense. Going up, up, up sooooo high and then almost instantly being thrashed down 10 times lower than you started. Just imagine the G forces on you during the plummet. And while the fall is almost straight down, you reach the bottom with jolting turn after turn, twisting you back and forth along with spotty up and down mini-humps along the way. All in all, it would probably be a nauseating experience.

Fortunately, I think the ride has started slowing to a stop and is actually finishing with an overall upward trend, so that makes me happy. But there were definitely times throughout the ride that I wanted to pull the emergency cord and make the train slide to a stop.

Forecast for the next two weeks is uncertain. A heavy fog lies across the track so I can't tell if the ride is actually slowing to a stop or just pausing it's frantic motion in preparation for another whirlwind ride. Whatever the case, I'm looking forward to 2 weeks from now when I can abandon the frustration of the current roller coaster in exchange for some real world roller coasters in a trip to Disneyland with the kids.

More on that to come.

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