Planin' to Playa

Winter is hanging on, about as welcome as a crazy flatulent house guest that just refuses to leave. It was -28 degrees this morning, late March--our comeuppance from Mother Nature for the three unseasonably warm weeks that started near the end of February.

Our family will be driving down to Edmonton in just over a week, then catching a flight on Good Friday bound for Houston and on to Cancun, Mexico. Ahhh, Mexico, that storybook vacation spot, with ocean vistas, pristine beaches, cackling taxi drivers, mucho cerveza and more tortillas and enchiladas than we've ever seen. Ahhh, Mexico, where day turns to night like the flipping of a switch, where the deepest cold requires wearing a sweater. Man! We can't wait.

In many ways, I'm grateful for the lingering cold here in northern Alberta, as it will serve to enhance the experience of traveling south. Had the weather been nice with the grass turning green, flocking off to southern climes would have been rather anticlimactic.

I've made the decision to go off the grid for the period of our trip, away from the work computer and BlackBerry for nine whole days. I know with certainty that time will stand still, as it always does for me when we go on holidays. And what better place to have time stand still than Playa del Carmen, nestled in a luxurious condo just a few short blocks to the beach with blue-green water, plenty of sunshine, and afternoon siestas every day?

We've mutually agreed, my wife and I, to bring her computer and her BlackBerry. In that way I can still maintain my daily post on the Middle Age Bulge blog and surf the web when I'm tired of surfing the old fashioned way.

March 24, 2010 - 193.6 pounds, 26.6% body fat