Friend,

I was only gone for 3 days!

...you'd have thought I was gone for a year!

My 4 year old son, Skyler, was sending pics daily, "Miss you papa!"

My daughter was frantically asking me about soap recipes and
"where's the cinnamon?"

My oldest, Blair, couldn't imagine missing a wrestling tournament...

"What am I supposed to do all weekend?"

Lea-Ann knew not to text...I was celebrating my 44th birthday!

(Thank you awesome bad ass wife!)

And I did it with my childhood friend from high school, Doug, who
celebrates the same birthday!

As kids, we celebrated over pizza...As teens, with beer and girls.

It was much different this time.

We climbed into my Cessna 206 and decided on Vegas.

I popped open the iPad and set up for landing at McCarren International.

My Bose headset grabbed the music from my phone. I primed
my engine.

"CLEAR PROP!"

Our bird came to life.

I let it spit out the extra gas and idle until smooth. I shot a text to
concierge at The 4 Seasons to reserve us a room.

(And please get me two tickets to MGK, stock room with a case
of Evian, 12 pack of Zevia Cola and Patron...)

Game on.

I taxied to run up, double checked my fuel and oil pressure, ran through
my flap settings and yanked on my prop control to make sure it was
ready to corkscrew us into the air.

All clear, I punched in the throttle, we rolled out. My feet grabbed the
pedals as the rudder grabbed the air. We rode the centerline for a few
hundred feet and then suddenly we were up and tore our way to 10,500ft.

At cruise, we were kids all over again. Just in our plane.

Doug was always the smart one and more cautious.

I was the "loudmouth who never had a filter."

Both of us were always "ourselves." We never had to do the corny
"soul searching." We knew/know who we are.

We paid for that.

There's always price to pay for being an individual and it's usually too
expensive for most people.

I don't f@#ck with those people.

I'd rather be with the ones who are mad crazy about imposing their will on the
world around them, rather than being bent into a weaker version of their
former selves.

Especially for my birthday!

And with that, we touched down in Las Vegas.

The 4 Seasons courtesy ride was waiting.

We started with Yerba mate and tequila.

I made a toast, reminding us (and anyone within ear shot by the pool) that
there are only two ages: dead or alive.

We celebrated being alive.

And we made it out alive, too!

Back at the office, I had far too many emails wondering, "where are you!?"

"We've haven't had an email from Shane in awhile..."

It's all good everyone!

I was only gone 3 days!

But then I had an email from my CEO!

"We need a re-stock approved! We're almost out of Cardio FX and
Cinnergy!"

...soooooo if you're reading this and use either one of these, you better
stock up now at www.thepeopleschemist.com/store

All orders over $89 ship for FREE!

Live young, celebrate more birthdays! And remember, there's
only two ages, dead or alive! If you're reading this, then you're younger
now than you'll ever be, so go live young!

Dare to ditch the meds,

The People's Chemist

P.S. Add 3 of anything for 15% off at www.thepeopleschemist.com/store.
I'll also ship for FREE!