( Picture: Patrick and his friend Dylan at local public pool. Patrick on the left. ) I love swimming. It has always been one of my favorite summer past times. I would swim all year if I had a pool convienently in backyard. It would definately have to be heated.

I remember growing up in a Dallas suburb and going to the local public pool. I took every swim class offered and then started teaching swimming lessons during the summer. When I was old enough I took the lifeguard test and passed it. I wanted to go on to take the Water Safety Instructor class but it didn't work out at the time. Later on down the road of Life John and I took that same Red Cross Lifeguard class and test together at the Navy Dive School in Panama City, Florida. At that time I was taking Scuba Diving Classes and got my PADI licence to dive.

There was one class, we had to do a night dive in the ocean. I felt something brush up against my leg in the murky dark water. I flew out of the water and into the boat. There were dolphins there checking out what all the lights were from our boat and our flashlights.

Another memorable experience was we went out one day and had to do a free accent. One thing about diving is that you have to come up very slowly. The pressure can do alot of damage to your body if you go up to the surface too fast. All the sudden we realised below the surface that our boat was no longer in our vision and neither were the other divers. John and I needed to go up soon or we would run out of air. We held on to each other and through nearly impossible vision due to the water getting murkier, we did a free accent. This means not usuing a rope or anything else to steadily get you up to the surface. John did a great job slowing us down so that we made it without injury. When we got to the surface our boat was looking for us. They were much farther away then I had thought. I must say it wasn't scary to me because I completely trusted my dive partner. Thank the good Lord, John was as experienced as he was. It was amazing. I guess my greatest fear was running into a shark in the ocean, knowing I was at a disadvantage. I tell you though, the things we saw underwater were marvelous. The water so clear you could see like forever most of the time. We dove around these sunken manmade reefs. John always got excited about trying to catch a live critter to show to me. I pretty much believed in the "look but no touch" idea of diving. I felt safer diving then I did walking in the water off of the beach because I could see what was going on underwater. I miss that part of my life, and hold it dear to me now. Funny, I haven't thought of that in along time. See what blogging can do? It helped open up some lovely memories for me. Glad I got to share.