Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Scottsdale Arizona; It's Not As Inexpensive As You Think

Her Majesty and I are visiting our grandchildren in Scottsdale, Arizona. Oh yeah, our daughter and son-in-law are on our visit list but the grandchildren come first and so does the money I pull out of my wallet.

A few years ago, the Cuban Caballero, my former next door neighbor in Westerville, Ohio, mentioned to me that he so enjoyed this column when I wrote personal interest stories. He is 100% correct. Therefore, human interest stories and such are much more fun than Hillary, Harry Reid or Donald Trump not to mention Ted Cruz or John Kasich and I'll correct my error moving toward these pursuits. Come November politics will be in the dust bin of history.

The truth is I do have writing and speaking talents. One of my very favorite skills is speaking in front of large groups even though I haven't done it since 2005. One of my Central Ohio acquaintances, Six Volt by name(or is it Twelve Volt), raved about my storytelling. The very best about these stories is they are self-deprecating. It doesn't bother me at all to make fun of myself. So, what would you rather read about, my opinions on why Donald Trump is a boob or the time I had to go to the bathroom so badly on a stopped freeway in Minneapolis, Minnesota and how I solved the problem? Or, do you want to know whether Hillary will go to jail? I think we all know that answer to those questions.

I'm going to go more into detail about how I've evolved on politics and the upcoming election at a later date but at this time, are you as sick of it as I? To be somewhat obscene, in answer to the question, "Does a fat dog fart"?

So, here we are in Scottsdale. It's a nice place. There's a highway, five lanes in all, called the 101. It encircles the city. On the left hand side is an HOV lane. Only those driving between 6-9 AM and 3-6PM with two or more passengers are allowed to drive in it. I found it more than unusual that at all hours of the day this HOV lane is virtually empty while the other four are at a dead stop. If the Queen had not been with me I'd have stopped at Wal-Mart and purchased a cardboard cutout of one female to keep myself moving------at any speed I desired!

In Scottsdale at this time of year it's the end of the Cactus League Season. There are at least six Major League baseball teams training with their own 15,000 seat stadiums. It's a planned vacation for folks from California, Arizona and especially, Chicago Cubs fans. Care to guess why? Because the Cub organization charges $90 to get into a game and the people will fork over. As a Cub fan I didn't give in. I opted for an A's game. That was 25 skins.

I do have to give a shout out to Billy Butler of the A's. His best friends in Scottsdale have a daughter who attends school with two of my grandchildren. He purchased box seat tickets for the kids, bought them caps and gave the autographed baseballs to a California Angels game. In addition, the kids could get as many refreshments, candy, glop as they wanted for the entire game. Yes, they did puke their guts when they came home but a grand time was had by all.

Now, what was that guys name again? Was it Trump or Dump, Hillary or Pillary? I can't remember. I don't care.






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