Am I losing it? I think I might be losing it. What am I losing? I think I might be losing some of my mental capabilities. If and when that happens to someone are they in a position to accurately diagnose the situation? I don’t think this is a conspiracy theory on my part. Most people who believe in one conspiracy theory or another don’t have any real data to back up their point of view. I have data. I am going to share that data with you. Then I’ll ask that you weigh in and tell me whether or not you agree that I “might be losing it”. Data point #1 A couple of nights ago Carol and I went to Taco Tuesday at our nearby Mexican restaurant. Taco Tuesday is where they serve tacos on Tuesdays. A pretty simple concept, huh? We like spicy food and spicy sauces. The spicier the better. I was telling our server how much we liked spicy food when I handed her my credit card to pay the bill. We concluded our pleasantries and Carol and I returned home just like we do on most Tuesday nights…after we have tacos. The next morning, I went to use my Chase Sapphire Visa credit card (the same card that earned me more than $10,000 in a single year in food and comfort using my Priority Pass membership). It wasn’t to be found. I freaked out. I mean I really freaked out! Soon I had Carol scouring the interior of the car to find that credit card. She couldn’t find it. I couldn’t find it. During the morning I talked to a couple of people about my situation. They told me the first thing I needed to do was call the credit card company and cancel the card. Oh, my! That was the very LAST thing I wanted to do. This is why I think I might be losing it. Sometimes people tell me things and I think they are crazy. Are they really crazy or do they just have crazy ways of thinking about stuff? Maybe they are correct. Maybe I am crazy? Maybe I am losing it. We have six or eight credit cards. I don’t know how many. Each one serves a purpose to get us bonus points for one thing or another. So long as the bonus points are more valuable than the card’s annual fee, I’m good with that. I really couldn’t care less if somebody picked up my credit card off the ground or stole my credit card number and charged things to their heart’s delight. That wouldn’t affect me in the slightest. I wasn’t going to cancel that card until I was totally out of options. I knew that all I had to do was call the credit card company if I saw any unauthorized charges. The card company would simply credit the false charges away into oblivion. Nope. I wasn’t worried in the least that somebody had my card and might use it for nefarious means. What WAS I concerned about then? I was concerned with losing my credit card, because the number was embedded into all kinds of businesses that I work with such as Priceline.com, Amazon, and lots of different airline companies and the like. I did not relish the idea of doing the “paperwork online” to fix all of that stuff. I’ve had to do that in the past. I’d rather have a root canal. The next morning, I called the restaurant. Surely, they had my credit card. No answer. I guess they weren’t open for breakfast. I drove over there at lunchtime. I talked to one of the guys that I know pretty well. He looked in the place, “where they have all of the credit cards that people have left behind”. It wasn’t there. I left. The guy told me he would call me if it turned up. No call. That evening I called the restaurant’s owner. I know him as well. He told me that he had heard I had lost my card. He was trying to check with his server who had worked with us but she wasn’t working on this particular day. The owner told me he texted his server about my card. He told me he would call back in 10 minutes. He never called back. On the next morning, I was getting ready to leave for a five-day trackchasing trip to the Midwest. I really needed that credit card. I called the restaurant one more time. A guy answered whom I didn’t know. I asked him about the credit card. He had it! I had now called the restaurant three separate times. I was going to visit the restaurant for the second time to get the card. Nobody at the restaurant had followed up with me after any of my contacts. Was I losing it…or were they losing it? I was just happy to get that credit card back. I was certainly glad that I didn’t cancel the card. That would’ve put me in “technology credit card hell” for a couple of weeks. Data point #2 It was about this time that I lost my Apple AirPods. I will admit to being absent-minded. I often go through the motions of things that I have repeated daily or weekly throughout most of my life without even thinking about them. I only use my AirPods when I exercise at the beach. I can’t get the things to stay in my ears. Everybody tells me just make this adjustment or that adjustment and they’ll stay in my ears. They won’t fall out. Stop with the advice! If just one more person tells me how to make my AirPods stay in my ears I’m going to explode. I’ve made all those adjustments. The AirPods won’t stay in my friggin’ ears. When I exercise at the beach, I wear a headband that helps keep the AirPods in my ears. Yes, I look like I’m a fellow from the 70s…because I am a fellow from the 70s. I’m the only guy at the beach who wears a headband. You all know the definition of insanity, right? The definition of “insanity” is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I kept looking in the same places and again and again, my Air Pods still weren’t findable. I only have two or three places where my AirPods ever reside. They weren’t in those places. I had Carol go out in the garage and give my car’s interior a good once over. Why Carol? Because she’s little and has small hands and she could bend. I can’t do any of those things. When I had pretty much given up on ever seeing my Apple AirPods again, I checked my small travel bag. I had gone through that bag five times or more looking for the AirPods. I opened up the case and looked in the center and there they were! It was as if Santa Claus had left them there. I figured Carol had found the AirPods and put them in my case as a “surprise” for me. She does stuff like that. She claims she didn’t. I think her fingerprints are all over those AirPods! I am a simple person. It doesn’t take very much to make me happy. I was on cloud 9 after having retrieved my credit card and having found my AirPods. Life was wonderful. The skies were blue. Birds were chirping. Off I went on my trip with a real big smile on my face. Data point #3 However, things began to happen on my trip that made me think that I was losing it once again. You’re gonna have to be the judge. I can only present the data. If you can interpret the data, please let me know whether I truly am losing it or not. About 10 days ago one of my front teeth seemed to be a little loose. When I bit down in certain ways, I knew the tooth just wasn’t right. I mentioned this to Carol. She said I needed to hightail it over to the dentist right away. By the way, I have the best dentist ever. Dr. Lamming and his staff rock. I wasn’t so sure about following Carol’s advice. I thought I might take a few more days to “evaluate” things. Then I went on one of my patented four-day trackchasing trips to the Midwest. On the first day just as I was wrapping up all of my morning hygiene chores, I put a single Milk Dud in my mouth. Normally I just suck on those candies rather than biting into them. I got a little absent-minded for a moment and bit down ever so gently on the Milk Dud with my loose front tooth. Just as smooth as silk my loose front tooth stuck into that Milk Dud and exited my gums. Too much information? The tooth broke into two pieces. Damn! Now I looked like a jack-o-lantern. Carol had been right. Whenever Carol is right and she knows it, I never hear the last of it. Maybe I was losing it. Data point #4 Carol and I have a trackchasing trip planned in a few days that will take us to Canada. This will be the first time I’ve traveled outside of the country since the pandemic began. It wasn’t so much that the pandemic kept me from traveling afar. It was more so that the flying rules of the pandemic kept me in the good all USA. I have a series of souvenir t-shirts that I created to support my trackchasing hobby. I don’t sell them. I don’t try to make money with them. I simply offer them as gifts of gratitude to the fans and promoters that I run into while I’m trackchasing. Carol and I are going to meet a couple who promote the races up in Canada. I asked for their t-shirt sizes so I could bring them both souvenir shirts. I had the size in stock for the woman but not the man. I figured if I couldn’t give him a Randy Lewis Racing trackchasing t-shirt I could at least give him a remembrance of Southern California. That being the case I went to In-N-Out Burgers. In-N-Out is a southern California institution although they have stores in eight or nine western states. They sell t-shirts. There is one drawback to going In-N-Out. The demand for their product is so great that the drive-through lane can take you 25 minutes to be served. In-N-Out like Chick-Fil-A has the best employees. It’s just impossible for them to keep up with the demand. I wanted to go to In-N-Out Burger today primarily to get a souvenir t-shirt for my new friend. I wound my way through the line. When the order-taker asked me what I wanted I inquired about their t-shirts. They didn’t have my friend’s size. As they say, no good deed goes unpunished! My consolation prize for trying to get a t-shirt at In-N-Out was at least that I could have a late lunch which featured my In-N-Out “go-to” meal a double cheeseburger, fries and a large Diet Coke. That entire process including eating my lunch in the parking lot once I was served took about 45 minutes. Now I was running behind on my way to LAX to catch a flight. Data point #5 I’ve got a great deal on parking at LAX. I get a super special price which knocks about 75% off the bill thanks to the generosity of LAX World Parking group. They’ve been a trackchasing sponsor of mine for more than 10 years. My car is parked at LAX for all or parts of more than 180 days. This is a valuable sponsorship. Today I parked Randy Lewis EEOC sponsored Tesla Model X in my favorite spot. Then I began the 25-minute walk over to the LAX terminal. I was about 10 minutes into the walk when I get a notification from my Tesla smartphone app. The back trunk lid of my SUV was open. Oh my gosh. That wasn’t good. This problem was somewhat similar to losing my credit card. The initial seemingly obvious solution to losing a credit card is to cancel the card. The solution to knowing you left your trunk lid open, as you depart for a five-day trip, is to go back and close it. I didn’t have time to do that. Because of the time I spent at In-N-Out Burgers, I didn’t have time to go back. I thought to myself. Maybe a good Samaritan would come walking by and press the button to lower the trunk lid. I sure hoped so. I could have sworn I shut the trunk by pressing that button. Leaving the trunk open with an SUV for five days was going to test my belief in the goodness of my fellow man. Don’t let me BS you. For the most part, I don’t have very good beliefs in the goodness of my fellow man. My Tesla smartphone app can do a lot of things. One of those things it can do is open the doors and close the doors of the car including the trunk remotely. I could be in India and open the doors to my car in Los Angeles. However, today, every time I hit the close the trunk button with the app my phone would show the trunk closing and then opening back up again. What was up with that? Data point #6 I recently became a season ticket holder for UCLA football. Carol and I are also season ticket holders to see all of the home UCLA basketball games. I bought the “blue zone” package for football. This is a program where a couple of days before the game UCLA will send me an email. With that email’s link, I am allowed to pick out our seat locations from the seats that remain in the Rose Bowl for the upcoming game. This program comes at a steeply discounted price. I think it’s a great value. Today, a day that wasn’t going all that well, I went to select our tickets for this weekend’s game. The UCLA ticket app wouldn’t work properly. I wasn’t even going to the game but I just wanted to make sure that I could operate the system effectively. I couldn’t. I called the UCLA sports ticket office while I walked toward the airport. Ultimately, I was on hold for 35 minutes and I talked with the representative for another 15 minutes. I did a good deal of this holding and talking while I was walking from the parking garage to the airline terminal and seeing the fact that my trunk lid was wide open on my car in the parking garage. That’s a lot of stress. The woman didn’t know exactly why my football app wasn’t working. She did tell me that I had only ordered one season ticket rather than to when I started the process. I wouldn’t only order one ticket when the two tickets that I wanted were for Carol and me. Had I made that large of a mistake? Am I really losing it? The young woman, probably a UCLA student, seemed to recognize that she was talking with an “oldster” and was more than willing to share her technology skills with me to make everything right. Soon I have the two season tickets that I was expecting and the tickets for this weekend’s game were selected as well. I simply forwarded those tickets over to J.J. in the hopes that maybe one of his friends would like to have them at no charge. Had I really only ordered one season football ticket when I wanted two? Had I really left my credit card at the Mexican restaurant? Had my AirPods been in my travel bag all along? Had I really left my trunk lid wide open? Maybe. Probably. Was I losing it? Data point #7 I normally head to the airport three hours before my flight time to accommodate all of the things that need to be factored in. This allows time for any abnormal problems that seem to occur from time to time. Today because I knew I was going to In-N-Out Burgers I added another 45 minutes of lead time. That should’ve given me plenty of time. It didn’t. Now I was really rushed. I was taking the last flight of the day to St. Louis. For some reason, the airline that I was flying on has a kiosk system that never works for me. As expected, the kiosk didn’t work this time either. Why was I not surprised? I would be forced to go to the back of the line with the “regular” people. That would add 20 minutes or more to my wait time. I didn’t have 20 minutes. I had to come up with another solution. What I’m about to tell you next is something that I can’t really tell you about. I have a secret way of getting through airport security when the kiosk doesn’t work or I simply don’t have enough time to make things happen. What is my secret method? Well, if I told you, it wouldn’t be a secret then, would it? Members of TSA, the FAA or the FBI might be reading this. I will only tell you this. I can get into an airline terminal if and when I really need to. I had taken three hours and 45 minutes to make a 65-mile drive up to LAX with a longer than expected stop at In-N-Out Burgers. Then I had problems with my football tickets and my Tesla tailgate. Lots of things that I hadn’t planned on were going wrong. I made my flight but I didn’t make it with much time to spare. Maybe I was losing it. Data point #8 Pretty soon I was catching an airplane and flying into St. Louis. Not long after I ended up in a movie theater somewhat like Lee Harvey Oswald but not really. I texted J.J. and Dustin. They both work at LAX. I told them about the trunk lid problem. Dustin volunteered to go over to my parking garage to check things out. My Tesla smartphone app showed a photo of the trunk lid being wide-open and pointing up toward the sky. In point of fact, Dustin told me that a lid was only ajar about 2 inches. He thought maybe some of the bedding from my recent overnight sleep in the car had kept the trunk from closing. Maybe that was the case. Thanks, Dustin. When I had arrived in St. Louis, I picked up my rental car and noticed I had a little extra time. I decided I would go check out a movie at a Regal theater. Why a Regal theater? I have the “Regal Unlimited” movie pass. For $20 a month I can see as many movies as often as I want for the month. I figure if I see two movies a month I breakeven. Any movie after that is free. I’ve already seen two movies this month so this afternoon’s showing would be complements of Regal Theaters. I chose my movie title today based upon time. I knew when I could get to the movie theater and I knew when I had to leave. There was one and only one movie out of all that was showing that would fit my schedule. The movie’s title was “Show me the father”. This was a Christian-themed film. I’ve seen a few of these and in almost every case enjoyed the films quite a bit. Today was no exception. If you get a chance, I would highly recommend the film “Show me the father”. I can pretty much guarantee you this. After watching the first 10 or 15 minutes of the film you will never be able to predict where it ends up going. You just won’t. I like movie theaters where they allow you to reserve your seat. I almost always pick the last row. When I see these movies in the afternoon during the week there may only be four or five people in the movie theater. When I sit in the back row, I can look at my cell phone as often as I want without disturbing anybody else. There was just one small thing that made my experience at the movie theater just a little bit unusual compared to everyone else who came into a Regal theater this month. I had been watching the film for more than an hour when I discovered something. This discovery surprised even me. I had been wearing my sunglasses during the entire showing! Who goes into a movie theater and watches most of the movie with their sunglasses on? Who doesn’t recognize they are wearing their sunglasses in a darkened theater? You decide Now we’re at the point where you get to decide. One data point does not make a conspiracy theory. I’ve given you eight data points. Based upon all the examples I provided, all of which occurred in a very short period of time, do you think I’m really losing it, or am I just absent-minded or worse? If you have an opinion, please share it. I’d love to hear what you think. Randy Lewis San Clemente, California Randy is a freelance writer who sometimes flies in coach, sleeps overnight in his car and believes that you should never think less of yourself or think of yourself too much.
The archives! Finance, Travel and Everyday Life past postings… Indonesia…the adventure The value of spending time with people who don’t look like you and didn’t grow up like you did and who are as nice as pie. I got Covid My experience with catching Covid after being fully vaccinated. Get off your butt and do this! All of the really good reasons to increase your cash flow with an interest-only mortgage. This group’s Covid predictions from five months ago! Recapping reader’s predictions for Covid outcomes from five months ago. I’m getting $600,000. Do you want your share? How you can create hundreds of thousands of free cash by just being financially smart. Randy’s simple advice on how to create cash…one day at time! I explain our household budgeting results and the value of having solar panels. NASCAR Bristol on dirt PLUS NCAA March Madness from Indy The travel adventure to do of the biggest sporting events in the country. Busted for drugs! Breaking and entering! Transporting minors across state lines! Big event. No ticket. Time to live by my wits. Are you open minded? Would you buy an electric car? It’s only a matter of time. You WILL buy an electric car or you will die. I hope you buy the electric car. Readers respond! Covid experiences and predictions for the future! Just like it says…readers give me their Covid experiences up to this point and their Covid predictions for the future. Covid today and tomorrow…I’m asking you to predict the future! From time to time, I ask for your help. What’s the future for Covid? How does TurboTax and nearly being killed by the Germans tie together? The government pays some of my mortgage. I now use TurboTax and I still fondly remember Ruth Schmidt’s dad. I’ve been fired! I’ve been kicked out! I’ve had to quit! The day I was asked to leave the Procter & Gamble Google group. That was a good day! Why do our friends say to my wife, “Poor Carol!”? If you don’t know my wife Carol and me then “Poor Carol” might not resonate. If you do know us then “Poor Carol” makes all the sense in the world. This is my social security strategy…should it be yours? Did you take social security at age 62? You did the right thing. France, ice racing, pizza, car museums…how do you do a trip like this? Come with me on a trip to France. See how I make these trips. Do I do it differently that you? ‘Twas the night before Christmas, my Christmas message to you! Just to be clear…we are not all in the same boat. My year in review with pictures. How many of my Facebook friends would lend me a dollar? My experiences are a bit different than most. Why? I can’t explain. This is my world and they know me here. Covid experiences from readers located all over the U.S. and the world The readers tell me about their Covid experiences. Covid….Past….Present….and in the Future I ask the readers…What have you BEEN doing with Covid, what are you doing NOW and what you plan to do in the FUTURE as regards the COVID-19 pandemic. So you wanna buy a new car! You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. The best I can do is explain the best way to buy a new car. From there it’s on you. Sweden touring plus Swedish ice racing…my last international trip before COVID I went to Sweden. Had a great time. Then when I returned home it was all Covid…all the time. What’s easier? Picking NFL game winners or presidential election winners? Presidential election winners. Importantly, I pick the winners before the election! Oh my gosh! I was having a bad day! Priority Pass; Tesla Superchargers; a bad GPS plan; NIMS people; Wisconsin beer drinkers; tornados…and then my hotel was closed. Yep. A bad day. Why me? Why did they choose me to receive the 2020 presidential election results the day BEFORE the election? I do not think of myself as special. Nevertheless, why did they pick ME to see the election results before the election? Patted down, checked for weapons, put in the back seat of a Ohio State Patrol police car and taken away… I don’t exactly travel as others do. I actually was patted down, checked for weapons, put in the back seat of an Ohio State patrol police car and taken away…I loved every minute of the adventure. How to get a free iPhone 12!!!! I got a free iPhone 12. Did you? All you need to do to be successful is to follow my plan from beginning to end. The Financial Plan of a Lifetime – 2020 Here I update my financial results for my FY 2019-2020. In 19 years, I have achieved an 8.6% annualized return on investment. As Dizzy Dean always said, “It ain’t braggin’ if it’s true or you can do it.” South Korea….one of my most unusual last minute experiences I have a lot of very unusual travel experiences. None were more unusual or uncertain than my trip to South Korea.
