We’ve put ourselves in positions to be able to enjoy a variety of entertainment options in our retirement. As much as we don’t like cold winters (especially in recent years years), we’ve never had urges to be Snowbirds. We prefer to spread out our retirement activities/trips to cover much of the entire year.

Since we’ve both been retired together (about five years), we’ve been able to enjoy a great number of indoor and outdoor concerts, we’ve seen a number of stage performances ranging from musicals, to dramas, to comedy-dramas, and more, on a variety of stages ranging from High School, College, Local Community, and Larger Theaters which have hosted some very fine productions, that we’ve enjoyed very much. (Before being retired together much of that was planned on weekends.)

As in almost everything we’ve experienced, there were/are some good aspects, some bad aspects, and some ugly aspects of the experiences. Here are some of each we’ve experienced.

Good:

We’ve been able to enjoy programs sponsored by the Robert H. Jackson Center, the Reg Lenna Center for the Arts, and enjoy cuisine, conversation, camaraderie, and entertainment of many great local restaurants, including but not exclusive, [the Cheers of Jamestown (The Pub), the Viewing Establishment of the Cleveland Browns (Waddington’s Tavern), and The indoor/Outdoor food and entertainment of Lakewood Rod & Gun Club]. We’ve also experienced much in Erie, Buffalo, and other cities/states as well.

We’ve also had opportunities to attend/enjoy many baseball games, in Cleveland, other MLB and MiLB cities/states, Jamestown, You can tell how many and how much by the number of items given away at games over the years, which are a part of our, “There’s No Plate Like Home” Lombardo Museum located in our Living Room with annexes in our upstairs hallway and my Man Cave, (a converted bedroom after we became Empty Nesters).

As partial season ticket holders for the Cleveland, formerly Indians/Guardians, I’m asked often to fill out surveys as to how we are enjoying games, giveaways, other promotions, and aspects of the Indians/Guardians Baseball Experience. Many who know me, know I never pass up opportunities to express my feelings. This is no exception.

Bad:

As much as we enjoy doing all these things, many of them involve being outdoors and having to deal with some lousy weather. We got lucky this past March as we cruised to the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, and Jamaica. Sally and I then crossed off a Bucket List item visiting Key West. Temperatures during both of those experiences ranged between 77 and 85 degrees. We lucked out! A week after returning from those journeys, we attended the Home Opener of the Cleveland Guardians Game at Progressive Field. Opening Day temperature in the 216 was 77 degrees. We lucked out again, but Lady Luck took a turn for the not-so-good after that. Since that Home Opener, the next day’s game (scheduled to be played in high 40s temps) was rained out and rescheduled as part of a Doubleheader on the day after the rainout. Temperatures for the DH was in the high 30s with an accompanying wind that chilled that high 30s to low 30s. The next three 3-game series we attended after the Opening Weekend, were played in weather that saw us dressed in clothes that ranged from double to triple, literally to quadruple layers, complete with a blanket. We also had to endure two more rain delays in that span, once the rain being so strong (complete with Thunder and Lightning) we were all evacuated from the seating to the stairwells.

Another “bad” was that while in Cleveland for the Home Opener, my credit card was compromised, hacked, whatever you call it, and was used by someone in Brooklyn, NY. I later found out that the address on my card was changed by the person who stole my information. Meanwhile, the bank handling my account sent out new cards, to my home address, which wasn’t my home address, but the person from Brooklyn’s address, so he used the new card when he got it. After countless time online, and on the phone, I was able to get all charges halted and the credit card bank to investigate. I also filed a police report as a backup. So far, those transactions are non-existent. The whole ordeal covered about a full month. It wasn’t fun, as you can imagine.

Then there was my klutziness which saw me miss a step coming down from a ladder, which sent me to the ER, later, an Orthopedic Surgeon, where, luckily, there were no breaks or tears, but x-rays showed a severely sprained and arthritic knee, which sent me on a journey propelled by a wheelchair, walker, and cane. I still use a brace when the leg gets tired, or I’m doing a lot of walking, but it’s definitely stronger.

Through all that, though, the Good won out huge over the bad.

Ugly:

Sometimes, there’s also ugliness that seeps into our activities, that motivates us to feel we have to say something about it. An example of this is election voting, when we look at the backyard/school playground-type spats, name calling, accusing, and flat out lying happening in our nation, and wonder what’s the point of going to the polls.

Driving down streets, roads, and highways we travel, often we see many drivers who drive with tunnel vision, only being concerned for themselves, bobbing and weaving drivers on roads creating havoc with those trying to get to their destinations safely. There are signs posted on lawns all over cities to watch out for motorcycles, which we should be watching out for all drivers, but then we see some motorcycles flying by on the divider line between two lanes of a two-lane highway, or zig-zag at high speeds. That affects all of us on the highway in some way, when we see the possibility of an accident happening before our very eyes, especially one that might involve us.

I often see ugly at the very place we love being so often, the ballpark. In our many games in Cleveland, on summer weekends, the Guardians have a two-hour “social” which they partner with Dollar Dog Night. The “Party in the Park” is a sponsorship by Miller Lite or Coors Light, offering twelve ounce $2.00 beers from the time the gates open (two hours before the first pitch) until the first pitch of the game. Sometimes just that turns ugly before the first pitch of the game. To me, the ugliness magnifies when on the scoreboard a “Raise your glass” promotion invites fans to participate in what might be perceived as making a toast but often turns into many fans just guzzling a full beer in record time. It isn’t just during the “Raise your glass” promotion, but many times when a fan appears on the scoreboard, with a 12 to 16-ounce adult beverage in hand, feels the need to show off their “chugging” abilities to the entire crowd. In my mind, I consider that ugliness, seeing some of the chuggers sitting next to a child, maybe their own, and/or many other kids in the crowd, witnessing these feats of questionable intelligence on the big screen. My suggestion (many times) in my yearly surveys has repeatedly been that cameras turn away from showing those fans’ taking pride in their Olympic Speed Beer Drinking ability.

Often, we have control of some goods, and some goods are/were pleasant surprises. We also know that there are bads we can control by making better decisions, and maybe researching a little better, but there are some bads we can’t control, like negative outcomes of games, performances of plays and concerts, and certainly, weather. We may, though, have some control of ugly events that occur in our experiences. Unfortunately, ugly is a reality, but we still have chances to turn, or walk, away from it when it occurs.

I know there can’t be just goods in life, there’s got to be bads too. Life has its downs, not just its ups. Those are inevitable, and a bit easier to accept. The uglies, too, bad as they seem, can also be curbed by not feeding/promoting them, and especially not airing them in front of impressionable minds. IMO!