I’m just a kid. When our grandkids were smaller and we wrestled around on the floor, I would tell them “I’m just a kid”. They would always shout, “Gramps, you’re not a kid”!
Because this story is so timely it’s going to serve as the intermission entertainment between Part 1 and Part 2 of my Australian adventure. When you finish reading this, I want you to ask yourself one simple question. Do you know anyone my age or maybe any age that leads a lifestyle like this? Now let’s get started.
Please! Please! Do NOT watch this video before you read my post. Please! This video is not for children. It may be the scariest video ever posted on YouTube from Los Angeles. I have warned you. This video contains graphic material. Please do not try this at home. I am a professional. I do this so you don’t have to. Here’s the link:
The “experience” and the “Walk of Terror” that no human should be forced to do.
A couple of days ago. Our son J.J. rang me up and asked if I wanted to join him at the College Football Playoff (CFP) National Championship game. The game was being played at SoFi Stadium here in Los Angeles. But first, let’s get something straight. This is NOT a post about football.
Secondly, J.J. didn’t exactly “ring me up”. He texted me. In today’s world people, especially younger people, don’t really call each other. They text. Is that the way it works in your life?
In point of truth, I didn’t even know the CFP National Championship game was being played in Los Angeles. However, if one of your kids rings you up and asks you to do something I think as a parent it’s nearly always a good idea to say yes.
Georgia was going to be playing Texas Christian University in the big game. The nickname for Georgia is the Bulldogs aka the “dawgs”. TCU’s nickname is the Horned Frogs. Unless the horned frog becomes endangered I think these two nicknames are safe from being banned by the people who want to ban stuff like that.
I am a sports fan. I have been to all of the big events. I’ve seen three different World Series, the NBA finals, the Super Bowl, and the Stanley Cup. If you’re not familiar the Stanley Cup is a championship for ice hockey!
I’ve been to the Kentucky Derby. I’ve seen the U.S. Open in both golf and tennis. Of course, I’ve seen auto racing at Monaco, Daytona, and Indianapolis. I am a sports fan and I like to attend big events. Nevertheless, this is NOT a post about sports.
I was more than willing to attend the CFP championship here in Los Angeles for simply one reason, and one reason only. After I went to the game, I could say, “I did it”. For me, a lot of things in life that I do are simply to say that I’ve had that experience and all of the things that go along with that experience and lived to tell about it.
Lived to tell about it? Is going to a baseball game or a hockey match all that dangerous? Did I really need to say “and lived to tell about it”? Maybe I didn’t need to use that phrase…and maybe I did.
Of course, tickets to the game would be expensive, especially on last-minute notice. Maybe you think you know where I’m going with this? Maybe you have an idea? But you can’t really have an idea what happened at this game because it had never happened to me in all of the games I have ever attended in the past. Maybe that’s why you’re going to want to continue to keep reading.
As it would turn out, J.J. would get a last-minute notice from his employer that he needed to captain a commercial jet airplane across the country. Bummer. This left me on my own. It would have been even more fun than it actually was with J.J. being my football partner but that wasn’t going to happen this time. Yes, I was on my own.
Getting a ticket to the big game was going to be expensive. I asked Carol if it would be O.K. if I spent the money to go to the game. Who am I kidding? Here I go again stretching the truth. I never ask Carol if it’s O.K. to spend money. I just don’t. That’s not how our household works. I manage the money and she manages everything else including me. We think this is a good sharing of our talents.
I could try to buy a ticket to the game using my famous “Need One” sign. Yes, that sign in French was used successfully for an event at Olympic Stadium in Montreal. On the other hand, I could go on some of the online sports ticketing sites like StubHub and see what they had to offer. I did just that.
I checked StubHub’s site every few minutes for nearly a day. The cheapest ticket I saw was $270. However, with a ticket in a price range like that, StubHub would add “fees”. The fees are for my “convenience”. I guess that’s the convenience of being able to check my phone every few minutes to see if someone was selling a ticket at a reasonable price. Those fees, for a ticket in this price range, are approximately $100 per ticket.
So… the cheapest ticket I saw was going for $370 in total. Frankly, I didn’t think that was so expensive. I sort of thought of the CFP championship game as something akin to the Super Bowl. It wasn’t the Super Bowl but akin to the Super Bowl. You would be hard-pressed to touch a Super Bowl ticket for $1,000. This made me think $370 for the college football bowl championship was pretty reasonable.
I might also add that the “cheapest” ticket was for a seat in the upper deck. Often this type of seat was in the upper part of the upper deck. To put it bluntly a seat in the upper portion of the upper ticket has a different zip code than a field-level seat!
It was still about 36 hours before game time. There were quite a few tickets being sold in the upper deck for $370 (including fees) and up. If there were that many tickets being sold now I figured there was a reasonable chance prices would go down before the game. Do you ever have feelings about what’s going to happen in the very near-term future and then come to find out those things don’t happen? Me too.
Ticket prices did not go down. They went up. This sort of “forced” me into trying to use my “Need One” sign at the game. It would’ve been easier to buy a ticket on StubHub, but it would also have been expensive.
At 10:30 in the morning, I hopped in the Randy Lewis Racing EEOC-sponsored Tesla Model X and began my journey toward Los Angeles. The drive up to Los Angeles was going to be about 65 miles one way.
Ten miles from home, I noticed one of those electronic highway signs warning that bad weather was coming at 4 p.m. today. The sign advised staying off the roads. Heavy rain was coming. I guessed I would probably need an umbrella.
Carol tells me to bring an umbrella everywhere I go. I never bring an umbrella anywhere I go. Carol will be right about the umbrella idea about one time out of one thousand. However, if you’re married, that’s all it takes, one correct prediction in one thousand predictions, to generate an “I told you so”. However…if you are married, have been married, or know anyone who is or has been married…you already know how this works.
I had to make an executive decision. Did I want to turn around and drive 10 more miles back to the house to get an umbrella just because a highway sign said that the expected rain was going to be so strong that people shouldn’t even be on the roads? I didn’t really want to do that. Then I looked in the backseat, and there was an umbrella! Maybe Carol put it there! I’m sure fond of that girl.
I did make a stop at my bank’s ATM. I withdrew $500. If I needed to pay more than $500 for a ticket to the game I didn’t really need to go to the game. I got three one hundred dollar bills and ten twenties. Then I stashed those bills in the seven different pockets of my cargo shorts! I’ll tell you why later.
Parking at the game was going to be expensive. Entertainment is expensive in Los Angeles. I could probably see Garth brooks play in Fargo, North Dakota for 50 bucks. In Los Angeles that show would probably be 10 times that amount or more.
I had a plan for parking. I could park at the Los Angeles International Airport where I have a monthly deal for parking. For just $75 a month, I can park my car as often as I want at the airport. On average I travel 180 nights every year. That means my car is at LAX about 200 days a year or about 15 or more days every month. Yes, I have a smoking hot deal for parking at the airport. I figured there would be no extra charge to park my car at the airport today using my accounting methods. Parking for the game would be “free” to me.
On the way up to the airport, I stopped at In-N-Out Burgers for lunch. I was in a festive mood. At In-N-Out, I saw both Georgia and TCU supporters enjoying our southern California-owned and operated In-N-Out Burgers fantasy.
At In-N-Out Burgers, I began asking people if they had any “extra tickets”. I live by the motto that if you don’t ask you don’t get. No one had an extra ticket. One fan from Georgia told me he had an extra just a couple of days ago and sold it. So close! Had I gotten a ticket at In-N-Out Burgers that would have made an excellent story. I followed up my ticket question by asking how folks were enjoying their In-N-Out Burgers experience. To a person, they all said it was fantastic. And yes, I always take pictures of my food. This is my go-to option a “double-double fried in mustard with onion only and fries”.
Someone had told me it would be a 2.8-mile walk from the airport parking garage to SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. I figured I could take an Uber for about 20 bucks or I could walk it.
I plugged in the destination using my Google Maps app on my phone, I was immediately told the walking distance was 3.6 miles, not 2.8 miles. What’s another mile among friends, right?
Because I had the time and because I have a goal of walking four miles each and every day I decided to walk it. My walk would take me through much of Inglewood, California. Walking around Inglewood is not safe. The walk to the stadium would be in the daylight. Of course, it’s safer during the day. However, the walk after the game would be in the darkness and only a crazy man would attempt that walk.
By walking I was trying to keep my expenses down. Why? I grew up in the Midwest and was taught to keep my expenses down. Off I went on the walk. I was saving twenty bucks.
Before we go any further let me tell you my theory on saving twenty bucks. If, on the day that I die, I am twenty bucks short then saving twenty bucks this afternoon was a good idea. In point of fact on the day that I die, I do not expect to be twenty bucks short. I don’t expect to be anywhere close to being “short”. So…saving twenty bucks today was sort of a waste of time but at least I got much of my four miles of walking completed. By the way, if you are a trapeze artist you NEVER want to come up short!
It was misting rain. The wind was blowing. The misting rain was strong enough that I had to put my “Need One” sign under my sweatshirt to keep it dry.
As I passed different hotels, I saw lots of fans standing in the lobby. I walked past the lobby windows holding my sign. Remember, if you don’t ask you don’t get. I suspect they were waiting for a large number of charter buses to take them to the game. I felt bad for those folks. Can you imagine how much their football touring package would cost?
I had thought those fans might be walking to the stadium like I was. I suspect the hotel staff told these out-of-town fans that walking through Inglewood wasn’t the best choice. During my entire 3.6-mile walk there were no other fans walking to the game. What was the matter with these people? Didn’t they know how to “manage expenses”.
After a little bit more than an hour, I arrived in the general area of the SoFi Stadium. Most of you know that SoFi is SoFi Technologies, Inc. (commonly known as SoFi) is an American online personal finance company and online bank based in San Francisco. I have a small amount of money in a SoFi bank account.
You have all seen big stadiums sell their naming rights to the highest bidder. Have you ever heard of a stadium changing its name for different sporting events? I never had. However, that is what will happen with the currently named SoFi Stadium. Check this out.
These are Sofi Stadium’s proposed, current, and future names.
City of Champions Stadium (planning phase)
Los Angeles Stadium at Hollywood Park (planning/construction phase; name to be used during the 2026 FIFA World Cup and International Soccer Matches)
LA Olympic Stadium (future name to be used during the 2028 Summer Olympic & Paralympic Games)
The stadium broke ground in 2016 and opened in 2020. For football, it seats 70,240, and for major events 100,240. Both the Los Angeles Rams and the Los Angeles Chargers play at SoFi. At this point, I had never seen an event in the stadium, which was another draw for me coming today.
Now was the time to bring on the “magic”. Of course, the magic is my “Need One” sign. This sign is simply an advertising billboard that tells people I’m looking for a ticket to the game today.
Wait! I know! You’ve read my writings about the “Need One” sign in the past, right? I can assure you of this. You have NEVER read the story about the events that unfolded today. Why am I confident in saying that? I had never had this experience which I why I know you have never seen me writing about what happened today.
I’ve been doing this for years. My “Need One” sign has gotten me into, at dramatically reduced prices and many times free, games and events all over the world including South Korea. Most of the folks who I met in South Korea came up to ask WHAT my sign MEANT more so than to offer me a ticket.
However, Covid has affected the use of my “Need One” sign. Covid? How could that be?
“Back in the day” it used to be easy to use my sign. Someone would have an extra ticket. These would be paper tickets. We would talk for a while, try to take advantage of each other, and ultimately agree upon a price. I would hand over the cash. They would give me their ticket. Real simple, huh?
However, with the onset of Covid, event organizers started going “paperless”. They began to issue electronic tickets. Today most people have their tickets “on their phone”. Now when someone has an extra ticket it’s more difficult to move that electronic ticket to me so that I can use it.
Lots of fans at these big events are older. Not everyone, but there are a significant number of older people going to these big-time events. Why? One of the reasons is money. These events are expensive. Older people generally have more money than younger people.
As many of you may have experienced older people aren’t as comfortable with technology as younger people. For some older people, technology has passed them by. They are perfectly happy with that. There is a saying that “ignorance is bliss”. I have an addendum to that that goes like this. Ignorance is ignorance. I think that if someone has “checked out of” technology because they think they are too old to get it they have sort of checked out of life.
Since electronic ticketing came into vogue, the offers from people willing to sell me an extra ticket have decreased a good deal. Younger people will still send me their ticket from their phone to my phone to complete the transaction. Some people just have me walk into the stadium with them. Then I pay them once we get inside.
Today fans from Georgia and TCU were streaming into the game. I was standing at a busy location holding up my sign about a foot above my head. It was raining slightly. Business was slow.
It is always at this point that I get a few general non-productive responses. There’s always a little old lady who walks past with her husband. She looks at me and sort of silently shakes her head and tugs on her husband’s arm just a little bit tighter. I know what she’s thinking. She’s thinking “We have our tickets. This poor fellow doesn’t have a ticket. Maybe he doesn’t have a home to sleep in. We don’t need to get too close to him, honey”.
Then there is the younger person. The younger person is a little more confident. Maybe overconfident? That comes with being a younger person.
They are likely to come up with hysterical comments like “Need one sign? What do you need”? I’ve heard that one thousands of times. They may also ask even though I know they don’t have a ticket to sell, “How much are you willing to pay”? I always say “I was willing to pay $5,000 for your ticket”. That usually shuts them up and they move on past.
Today, for the first time ever, after doing this hundreds of times, I got a different response. How many things do you do in your life, that you’ve done hundreds of times, that elicit a different response? Here’s how it went down. This was going to get interesting.
Reader alert!
Due to the sensitive nature of what I am about to tell there will be no photos of the people involved. I’m sure you can understand that not all parties are interested in being a part of a post, on this subject, that ends up going to thousands of people. Thank you for your understanding.
A guy came up to me and told me that he could “get me into the game”. Really? It would be standing room only but he could get me in. I am as open-minded as the next guy. I was intrigued by his approach and listened a little bit more.
He told me to follow him. After about half a mile of following him, I asked him how much further we needed to walk! We reached our destination. The guy had asked me how much I was willing to pay. I told him $200. Remember, the cheapest ticket at this point, up in the nosebleed section on StubHub was selling for $573 dollars including fees.
The guy told me that I would need to pay him the $200, and then when I walked up to the ticket taker, they would let me in. Interesting. Let me make sure I had this right. If I gave him the money before I got into the stadium and then I just walked up to the guy scanning the tickets he lets me in? That sounded almost too good to be true. And you all know that when something sounds almost too good to be true it probably isn’t true.
I told the guy I was more than willing to walk up to the ticket taker, take one step past the ticket taker and be inside the stadium and then hand him the $200. He didn’t want anything to do with that idea. We officially closed down our negotiation.
I continued to walk around, holding up my sign with no results. Not a single bite. It was sort of like fishing. Why do they call fishing, fishing? Because when you go fishing, you never know if you’re going to catch anything or not. That’s fishing.
It wasn’t long before I came upon another fellow who told me he could “get me into the game”. Like the previous guy, this would be standing room only. He had the same sales pitch as the guy I just talked to! However, he seemed a little more honest and reliable. Remember in corporate life I did a lot of interviewing. I feel that I’m a good judge of character. On the other hand, who doesn’t feel they are a good judge of character?
I asked the guy what he wanted for his services. He told me $300. I gave him the “explosive no”. If you’ve had any training in negotiating you know this technique. This is where you immediately “explode” well not really explode. You come on strong and say there’s no way that you could pay that amount. I offered $100. He immediately came back with $200. Remember I just agreed to pay $200 to the other guy but now I was feeling a little more confident. I told him I couldn’t pay $200. We agreed to temporarily suspend our negotiating. I continued on with my sign.
I walked around a little bit more showing my sign with no results. All during this time the fellow who I had temporarily suspended negotiations with was keeping an eye on me. I liked that. He hadn’t given up on our negotiations.
I walked past this guy again. I thought he had possibilities and it was beginning to rain harder. I told him I couldn’t pay $200. My very best last offer was $140. He wasn’t offended at all. People don’t get offended in conversations like this. We are all just looking for common ground. He came back with $160 as his counter. I accepted.
If I could get in for $160 when the very best last-minute ticket on StubHub was selling for $573 that was good. I had parked for free and parking was selling for $100 and more at the stadium. I thought I was doing pretty well.
Now exactly how was this all going to work? Again, the guy wanted my money before I got past the ticket taker. That is what had stalled my first attempt at this approach. I told him I would pay him $60 now and when I crossed the threshold and was in the stadium, I would hand him the other hundred dollars. He said that might work.
He walked me up to near the gate. We stood maybe 30 yards from the ticket taker. He looked at me and said, “That’s our guy”. Our guy? Whose guy? He told me not to ask so many questions. I was told to simply walk up to the ticket taker and show him my phone. He would look at my phone and I would be allowed to pass.
Before anyone jumps to any conclusions whatsoever, please let me explain. The fellow I was negotiating with was wearing a Lakers jacket. I can’t tell you one way or another if this fellow was associated directly with the Lakers or SoFi Stadium or the College Football Playoffs bowl game people or not. There was just no way of me knowing this. All I could do was take him at his word. I would pay him money. He would get me into the game. Isn’t that the way the college admissions scandal worked? Wait! Hold on! I wasn’t taking anyone else’s spot!! What else could I do? I couldn’t call up the mayor of Los Angeles and “vet” my negotiating friend at the very last minute just before kick-off
Then as this was all about to come down my friend said that he couldn’t come up and stand next to me as I crossed through the gate. I would need to pay him the entire $160 before I got through the gate. He told me he would stay right where we were standing just 30 yards from the ticket taker as all of this “went down”. Went down? Yep. They how we talk in situations like this. By this time, I trusted the guy. Maybe the Stockholm Syndrome was setting in on me.
I gave my Lakers jacket-wearing friend the $160. I walked up to the guy at the ticket gate. I showed him my phone. Just as had been explained to me the ticket taker looked at my phone, moved things around a little bit, and said, “I don’t see that you have a ticket here”. Yikes! This wasn’t going as planned. I looked for the Laker’s jacket guy. I didn’t see him. Bad thoughts raced through my mind.
Then I got a better view. The Lakers’ jacket guy was still standing just 30 yards away with my $160 in his hand! I walked back to him and asked “What’s up”. He told me there must be a “problem”. He told me that if he couldn’t fix the problem he would give me my money back. He conferred with a couple of his partners. These were big ugly dudes. They made some gang-like gestures to the guy at the ticket gate. Everyone seemed to nod in agreement. For the second time, I went back up to the ticket taker and showed my phone.
This time he took my phone and stared at it intently for a few seconds. Then he allowed me to pass. I was now inside the SoFi Stadium. Yes, I was in!
Folks, I was inside SoFi Stadium in one of the most expensive sports markets in the world at the biggest college football game of the year. I did it for $160 (including parking!) when 99.9% of the fans in the stadium had paid much more than that.
As I said there was no way I could verify one way or the other that my Lakers jacket-wearing friend was on the up and up. Maybe he had a special “promotional” deal with the owners and operators of SoFi Stadium. My goodness. It was raining and windy. What was I going to do? Ask for his résumé? Ask for his employee ID card? I like to take people at their word.
This guy told me, after some negotiation, that if I paid him $160 he would get me into the stadium. I paid him the money. He got me into the stadium. It’s really just as simple as that. Do I want to know all of the background details? Well, that would be kind of fun to know, wouldn’t it? That wasn’t going to happen today. I was in the stadium.
The SoFi Stadium is new and it’s big. It’s a really nice stadium. I don’t know if it’s as nice as the AT&T Stadium down in Dallas but it’s a very nice stadium.
The SoFi roof is not retractable, but the sides of the stadium can open to the elements, creating an open-air feel. On a cold and rainy night like tonight the idea of having two ends of the stadium open created quite the cross breeze. Granted it’s normally warm and dry in Southern California. Tonight, it was neither. That cross breeze made it chilly for a fellow, like me, wearing shorts in the dead of winter. I saw lots of fans using their hooded sweatshirt for protection against the cold.
I didn’t have an “official” seat. Sometimes that comes from dealing with people who wear Lakers jackets! However, at a game like this, there are always enough open seats where if I wanted to sit down I very well could have.
There are five levels of seating at the stadium. The lowest level is 100 and the top level is 500. When I checked on StubHub, all of the nearly $600 tickets were on the very top level of the stadium. Seats lower down were selling in the thousands of dollars.
I found myself on level three (red X) which was midway from the top to the bottom of the stadium. Behind the last row of seats in the 300-level was a nice table where fans could stand and put their food and drink down and watch the game. I watched the game from this position. It was just fine. I’m guessing that StubHub was selling 300-level seats for $1,500 and up. That’s right. I paid $160 for a $1,500 seat.
There was another reason that “standing room only” wasn’t a problem. The fans stood at their seats in virtually every section that I could see for the entire game. Had I had a “seat” I would’ve been standing the entire game like everyone else.
As I mentioned, Georgia was playing TCU. Georgia fans wore red and TCU fans wore purple. I had purposely worn a light blue, hooded sweatshirt, so as not to “tip off” or “piss off” any fans who might want to sell me a ticket, but would notice I was wearing the other team’s colors. Remember folks, there is a lot of strategy to doing what I’m doing!
So here we had all of these Georgia people and all of these Texas people who were absolutely losing their minds over the outcome of the game. I wasn’t cheering for or rooting for either team. I had no interest in the game really. I came here for one and only one reason and that was simply to say that I did it. Now I had done it.
I did buy a nine-dollar fried hotdog. I tried to savor every bite. I upgraded to the souvenir cup for my Diet Coke later in the proceedings. At halftime, I would have a package of kettle corn. Overall, I was a little disappointed in the food offerings at SoFi.
At halftime, Georgia, a 14-point favorite, was leading the TCU Horned Frogs by a score of 24-7. I was secretly rooting for a blowout. If that happened I might leave early. That way I could get an Uber at a reasonable price back to my parking garage.
The TCU fans have a gesture, which I guess is trying to replicate a horned frog, that makes them look like they have something arthritically wrong with their hand. Apparently, with their scrunched-up fingers, they are trying to replicate the horns of a horned frog. That’s only an assumption on my part.
I figured I would stay for a miraculous halftime show and depart sometime during the third quarter. The halftime show was about as lame as could possibly be. The TCU band came out on the field and performed for about five minutes. Then the Georgia band did the same thing. That was it. I hate watching college bands play at football games at halftime. It’s so “been there done that”. Can’t they think of something else to do?
During the middle of the third quarter, it was time to leave. The score was 38-7 in favor of Georgia. By leaving at this point did I miss the most miraculous comeback in the history of the CFP National Championship game? No, I did not. Georgia whomped the Horned Frogs 65-7. Dare I say Alabama should have been in the final four?
I checked Uber to see if I could get a ride from near the stadium to my airport parking garage. The charge would be just 12 bucks. What a steal. I placed my order on my phone and waited. No driver picked up my ride. A few minutes later I got a message from Uber saying that, “no drivers were available” in the area and that I should try later.
There’s a song that says “It never rains in Southern California”. I’m sure you’ve heard it. If you offered me a million dollars and gave me a thousand guesses I could never have told you Albert Hammond did that song. Music ain’t my gig.
The song does not say it never rains in California. It says it never rains in SOUTHERN California. Northern California gets dramatically more rain than we do in Southern California, which is why I strongly prefer living in Southern California.
However, once in a while, maybe two or three, or four days a year it does rain hard in Southern California. Tonight, was one of those nights. It was pouring down rain as I left the stadium. It had been pouring down rain since the football game started. The wind was blowing at about 25-30 miles an hour. It was a very uncomfortable evening. The wind wasn’t doing my umbrella any good at all as it alternated from being concave to convex!
I checked Uber one more time. Now the Uber fare to take me 3.6 miles was up to $83. I made another executive decision. I would “walk it”. In a driving rain storm and tornado-like wind conditions I was going to walk 3.6 miles in the dark through the middle of Inglewood, California. There were a lot of reasons on many different levels that this seemed like less than a good idea. However, when you’re a “kid” you don’t always recognize the inherent dangers that are all around you.
The sides of the streets were starting to overflow with rainwater. This water was now running above the curb level. Cars would drive through these sections, leaving a wake that was 3-4 feet high and spread out to the side another ten feet. I walked on the far side of the sidewalk to try to avoid the water coming my way.
Much of the Inglewood city streets are lined with commercial business areas, stoplights, and activity. Again, there were absolutely no fans walking on this route as most of them were still at the game.
I was a little concerned about what would be upcoming on this walk back toward the airport in the dark of night. With my walk tonight I would have to cross under the 10-lane 405 freeway. This space had been home to a major homeless settlement earlier this year. It wasn’t so bad, well it wasn’t so good either when I passed through this area during the daytime hours (above). However, it was going to be mighty spooky, walking for a couple of minutes through this hell hole in the dark under the freeway through this homeless area. At least if I ever needed a grocery shopping cart I knew where to get one!
I was starting to get really wet now. Not so much from the rain itself but from the puddles the rain was creating, and the spray the cars were sending my way. I was wearing cargo shorts even though the temperature was now about 50° with rain and wind.
Why did I choose cargo shorts? I chose cargo shorts because “it never rains in Southern California”. I also chose cargo shorts because cargo shorts have seven pockets. In each of those pockets I stashed either a $100 bill or a few $20 bills and my Tesla key fob and other valuables.
I figured if I got “rolled”, a vintage term that is equivalent in today’s terminology to being “mugged”, maybe I could “fool” my mugger into not checking into every one of my seven pockets and the experience wouldn’t be a total loss. Yes, I am always planning ahead.
Sometime about midway through my walk, I got tagged two or three times from the puddle spray in a mega way. This wasn’t exactly a spray. It was more like a deluge. The spray from the cars could go ten feet up in the air at this point and 10-15 feet from the road over the sidewalk. The water completely drenched me. I couldn’t get any wetter at this point, so I didn’t much worry about it.
What was still on my mind was the upcoming 405 freeway underpass. I am a pretty good walker, but I am no longer a very good runner. Nevertheless, I decided it might behoove me to run through the homeless area at top speed which isn’t much of a top speed for a fellow my age. Nevertheless, I was still running. This is where you click on the video link to see how this happened in real time!
Yes, you can see exactly what running under the underpass looked like by clicking on the video that I have provided for your enjoyment. I told you upfront that I don’t exactly behave like most people. I certainly don’t behave like most people who have a birthdate on their driver’s license like I do. That’s just a fact.
I checked my phone when I got back to my car in the airport parking garage. I walked exactly 10.5 miles today. Almost all of that was done in heavy rain and wind.
The first thing I did was to take off my absolutely soaked hooded sweatshirt. Carol had just given this to me for Christmas. Today was the first time I had ever worn it. Then I took my shoes and socks off. That was followed by taking off my cargo shorts.
Now I was down to my underwear and t-shirt and would end up driving home barefooted. I can honestly tell you this. Never in the first 41,000 miles of my Tesla ownership have I driven my car in my underwear, a t-shirt, and barefoot. It wasn’t that bad. This was certainly better than driving home fully clothed in 100% water saturated clothing.
Now we have come to the close of my story. Do I have any regrets? Only one. I wish J.J. had been able to join me.
I’m also a little bit bummed about Covid. I’m not as bummed about the Covid disease as I am bummed about Covid having an effect on paper sports tickets at big events. You’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone who thinks about Covid in this fashion.
I’m going to miss it if electronic ticketing continues, which I’m pretty sure it will. Taking advantage of people who have an extra ticket aka in some people’s minds as “stealing from them” just isn’t going to be the same.
Is it really that dangerous to walk through a “bad neighborhood” at night or is that just a product of some people’s imagination? Was I going to be afraid of the boogieman? I believe it to be true that oftentimes our imagination is much worse than reality but then who really wants to take a chance?
I kept thinking, “How many bad guys could be out here tonight waiting to murder me in such foul weather? Wouldn’t they all be home watching the game on a huge big-screen TV that they got when it fell off the back of a truck”?
I will also tell you this. I am a member of Facebook. There’s really only one thing that bothers me quite a bit on Facebook. What’s that? It’s all of the people complaining about “inflation” and high prices. I believe most of these people have an agenda, and that agenda is not really the impact of inflation on their personal being. Fortunately, these complaints have virtually stopped since early November.
In order to mitigate any impact of high prices on my situation I simply use Randy’s Five Rules to fight inflation. Here they are.
Randy’s 5 rules to fight inflation
- Find a substitute for the inflated product or service
- Use less of the inflated product or service
- Stop/postpone using the inflated product or service
- Get the product or service for free (ex. using frequent flyer/hotel stay points) or at a steep discount (ex. McDonald’s app)
- When the first four steps don’t work re-invest the savings of steps 1-4 that DID work with other products/services when you must pay the price of an inflated in price product or service
I came to the stadium tonight thinking I would use rule #5. I thought I was going to pay a high price to see the game. I would have to use the money I had saved by “buying things right” in the most recent past.
In a way, I ended up using rule #1. I found a substitute. I got a reduced price for buying a standing room only situation. I also used rule #4 by saving a hundred bucks with free parking and by walking rather than paying for an Uber. I really didn’t want to use rule #3 tonight. When would the College Football Playoff game be in Los Angeles again?
There you have it. Another day in the life of Randy “the kid”. I hope I never grow up and I really don’t expect to. When I tell my grandkids I am a kid, I truly believe it.
I also hope you enjoyed reading what I shared. Maybe in your “mind’s eye,” you could imagine a little bit of the experience I had tonight. Maybe I’ll run into the guy wearing the Lakers’ jacket again. I sure hope so. He seems to have contacts just in the right places.
I’ll be back to you with Part 2 of the Australian adventure as soon as I can dry out.
Randy Lewis
Weather channel trainee