What I lack in smarts I make up for in luck

I’ve done two things recently I’m not so sure were all that smart during this pandemic. Let’s just say I tested the limits of my vaccination.

First, I went to the Indianapolis Colts season opener — with 68,000 of my closest friends. It was a sellout crowd. The Colts lost, of course.

My wife’s boss has season tickets in about 10 rows back on the 15 yard line. He was otherwise occupied this day, and gave his tickets to my wife. I was so excited about doing this that it didn’t hit me until we had parked and were walking toward the stadium: holy frijoles, there’s a global pandemic on! I decided not to turn back.

A week later, our youngest son and I saw Megadeth and three other heavy-metal bands at an outdoor ampitheater. It looked like a sellout crowd to me, and the place holds 25,000 people. Here’s a snippet of the band performing. I can’t believe my iPhone’s microphone picked up this extremely loud music with such clarity.

Our youngest is a major metalhead, as was I back in the day. I’ve tried to bond with him by taking him to see the Big Four thrash metal bands of my time: Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, and Slayer. We had seen all but Megadeth, and what a journey it was to be able to see them. We had tickets to see the band in 2019 when founder Dave Mustaine was diagnosed with throat cancer and canceled the tour. He recovered, and the band tried again to tour only to be stymied by the coronavirus. They rescheduled our show either two or three times over more than a year trying to outrun the pandemic. They decided to press on with this date despite the Delta variant being in full swing.

Despite being so close to so many people, some of which had to be carrying the coronavirus, I came through untouched.

That I’ve done these things is not a declaration that I’m done being cautious. Let’s call them temporary pauses in my caution. I have no more pauses planned. But good God, were these pauses fun.


Comments

17 responses to “What I lack in smarts I make up for in luck”

  1. Lone Primate Avatar

    “Megadeath”, huh? Talk about playing with metaphorical fire. :D

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      4.5 megadeaths so far from the virus!

  2. dionyb Avatar

    I visited Chicago in August then drove with my son and daughter across Illinois, Missouri, Kansas and finally into Denver. It was a shock to see the numbers of unmasked. We ate in a lot of restaurants along the way and mostly inside. I understand your feeling of having dodged a bullet.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      There’s an awful lot of anti-mask sentiment in the middle of the United States.

  3. brandib1977 Avatar

    As hard as we try to be smart and safe there are risks associated with even the simplest tasks where there’s even one person in the room. It’s been a long nineteen months- sometimes you have to throw caution to the wind and give in to temporary insanity. I’m so glad you dodged the bullet!

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Good point. But in 68,000 people you KNOW some people were contagious!

      1. brandib1977 Avatar

        You know a bunch were. Lesson learned for future adventures!

  4. Michael Avatar
    Michael

    I would think YOU were wearing a mask at least, but I must say I’m surprised you went to a Colts game since I’ve never known you to be a sports fan.

    Megadeth on the other hand is a no brainer. I am curious if they played any of their Christian songs or otherwise shared the faith? I haven’t looked into it, but don’t think they have made a full album with Christian lyrics like Blackie Lawless and Alice Cooper have done, but I know they have written many that express their faith.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      I’m not a huge sports fan but when I can see pro sports for free, it can be a good time!

      Megadeth didn’t share their faith, and I’m not sure which of their songs are about their faith so I couldn’t tell you if they played any!

  5. tbm3fan Avatar
    tbm3fan

    I was once a huge Colts fan. Baltimore Colts fan, and Johnny Unitas fan, from 1962 despite last living in Baltimore in 1966. You have no idea what I endured in high school, in 1968, in San Diego (AFC town), when the Colts lost to the Jets. I was the only Colts fan in school of course and everyone knew it. I gradually paid a little less attention till a guy named Walsh was signed on to be a head coach in 1979 along with a guy named Montana. I took to him and the Colts took second place. However, their place was Baltimore and when Irsay moved them I put a curse on the team for ever more. Now I am exclusively a 49er fan.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      The Colts have paid for that move by being mostly a losing team ever since.

  6. M.B. Henry Avatar

    Glad you came out unscathed – although I assume your hearing might have taken a hit :) :)

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      A little. The nice thing about outdoor concerts is that the noise dissipates. My ears ring longer after an indoor concert!

  7. Darts and Letters Avatar
    Darts and Letters

    I watched a little of this game on tv, Jim! I could’ve seen you! Had you ever been to a Colts game? I’ve never been to an NFL game. For me personally, it was a little disturbing to see so many people in the stadium without masks, screaming and shouting. But we have a mask mandate here that applies to large gatherings for sports and YET you still see a ton of people maskless, like the weekend finale series the Mariners (our baseball team) had with the Angels. There doesn’t seem to be much enforcement. They had 40,000 people in the park the last three nights. I find it somewhat ironic since Seattle is frequently pointed to as an example for the rest of the country, when it comes to our community public health response to the pandemic.

    I’m kind of innured to this, to be honest. I think it happened for me when my nephew sent some pictures of the University of Michigan game he went to, the stadium was packed with a hundred thousand plus. Everything went out the window for me after I saw people jam-packed together.

    Part of me thought of going to some Mariners games, late summer. But my youngest boy isn’t vaccinated yet and I’m just not ready to be hauling him into crowded settings. We probably could’ve gone earlier in the summer, when there was frequently only 10,000-12,000 people attending games.

    It’s a process. You’ve been really conscientious throughout the pandemic. It’s quite fascinating to me, the gradual stages of assessment and judgment calls about such things we’ll all be making for ourselves and our families, as we continue to move through these deeper stages of the pandemic.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      I feel unmoored. I hardly know what to do.

  8. J P Avatar
    J P

    I am just now getting to this. We got on a plane and flew to Florida. Then we flew back. Then we drove to Wisconsin. In truth, I’m kind of over the whole thing. I’m either going to catch it or I’m not. I would rather not but ultimately I don’t think that’s fully under my control.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      There are things you can do to mitigate the risk, if you’re interested. If you’re not, then que sera sera.

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