Paintball is evil.

Well, not exactly evil, but it sure hurts!

I have been resisting my son's invitations to go paintballing with him for a few years now. I told him I played paintball once, before they had restrictions on the speed of the balls and all the fancy guns shooting 20 balls per second. When I played they used pump action guns and the guys who played all the time would freeze their paintballs so they wouldn't jam in their guns. Let me tell you, a frozen paintball hitting you at 400 feet per second hurts like, well, it just hurts.

When I came back from that paintball experience, 18 years ago, I looked like I had been beaten by a gang of crack addicts armed will ball peen hammers. Big purple bruises and red welts, that soon turned into bruises. Thank you very much, but I have experienced all the paintball I ever wanted in one day.

OK, so I'm not very bright and went again last night.

It was fun. I am still nursing the bad knee from my Quad incident, so I am not very mobile. Being mobile seems to be a big advantage in paintball, being fast and young doesn't hurt either. No one would mistake me for fast or young, so basically I am a giant, slow moving, target.

I was shot. Many, many times.
Most of the shots were from far away, 30 or 40 yards, so they did not hurt at all. Just a slap and a little sting. The shot I took from fifteen yards away, that one hurt.

I have a quarter sized red mark on my chest that will soon turn into a half dollar sized bruise. You know what I always say, no pain, no gain.

I am just trying to figure out what the gain is. I guess spending time with my son doing something he loves is the gain. I just wish he would love something a little less painful.