What a long strange trip it has been

Phil Gurnee ♦ October 20, 2017 ♦ 6 Comments

The last time the Dodgers went to the World Series:

The Dodgers had just completed one of the greatest NLCS in history and shocked the Mets.

I could call my father any time and talk about any sport. Especially the Dodgers

I was courting a girl from work by taking her to Dodgers games

I was 29 and completely broke after a series of bad investments

I was renting a single room in West Los Angeles from a young couple with an annoying dog

I biked to work

I had three best friends who I hung out with just about every day

I played softball three times a week

I worked out two hours a day

I had long hair and wore it in a ponytail

I didn’t have a TV

I slept on a futon

I had come close to being fired because I didn’t respect what my boss told me to do

I had Clipper season tickets because I couldn’t get Laker season tickets.

I had no pets

My oldest brother had yet to have children, none of my nephews/nieces were old enough to know what a Dodger was.

I loved that Dodger team

The internet had just been born. Prodigy was the beginning and I was there.

Twenty Nine years later:

The Dodgers blew through the Cubs in a very one-sided NLCS that will be remembered as the game of castoffs with Justin Turner / Chris Taylor / Charlie Culberson / Brandon Morrow all with major contributions.

No father to talk to about the Dodgers going to the World Series. He is still alive but his brain is not.  I’m reluctant to even call him because I know he won’t understand what I’m saying, and he can’t articulate what he wants to say. Frustration does not even begin to describe this situation.

I married that gal from work and this year was our 27th wedding anniversary.  We aren’t the biggest Dodger fans that we were in 1988 but we watched the Dodgers win the NLCS together,  quietly on the couch.  No children to celebrate with, just us, our cats and dogs.

I’m semi-retired, my plan to retire at 55 almost became a reality as I was let go at age 57 and decided I’d worked for other people long enough. Every company I worked for in the past 29 years does not exist anymore. Every line of code I ever wrote does not exist in production anymore. I have no legacy other than a solid financial well-being. That is not very satisfying.   We are financially comfortable, this time a series of good investments, well-paying jobs, and a frugal lifestyle have allowed us to look forward to our last act without the constant worry about how will we afford it.

I’ve lived in a nice house in Woodland Hills since 1993. I planted an oak tree in the front yard in 1997. It is now a huge tree but has yet to give us a single acorn. I hope to live long enough to see it bare acorns.  A strange hope I know.

I actually ended up working for an electric bike company for eight years before they were merged with Raleigh Bike Company in Seattle. During that time when the headquarters was in Chatsworth, I still biked to work.

One of my best friends died, the other lost his oldest son to Leukemia at age four and moved back to Kansas to raise the rest of his family, and the other moved back home to Seattle.  We rarely talk, maybe once a year. They were never replaced.

After a hiatus of ten years from playing softball, I’m now playing again in two different Senior leagues. At times I’m back to playing softball three times a week but instead of at night it either in the morning or late afternoon. Semi-retired has its perks.

I have no regular workout regiment anymore.  At my peak, at age 29 I was bench pressing 300 Ilbs while weighing 150. I now weigh 168, but I’m in as good as shape as anyone my age.  My constant goal is to get back to 155.  I don’t do heavy free weights anymore, I simply do body weight exercises.

I’ve been bald for twenty-five years.

I’ve got the big screen HDTV with access to Time Warner so I’ve been watching every Dodger game for decades.  Since being in my current house I think I’ve watched 98% of every game the Dodgers have played.

The futon is long gone, replaced with a bed that needs replacing

I still hate being told what to do by those who don’t know what they are doing. Sometimes I still hate being told what to do by those who do know what they are doing.

I still have Clipper Season tickets, but I also have Laker season tickets because when Magic left the fans left and after years of being on the waiting list, we got our seats.  I originally only had the Clipper seats because I couldn’t get the Lakers seats but now I’m a bigger Clipper fan than a Laker fan.

I have buried/cremated thirteen pets in the past twenty-nine years. Several of them were very close to my heart, some were simply responsibilities.  None were as cool as my current dog Katrina who never leaves my side for even an instant.

My oldest brother ended up having four children, all four were valedictorians, two are huge Dodger fans, they watch the games and text about it with their mother who tells their father what they are saying about the game. It is so 2017.  My first niece from my brother Chris became a huge Dodger fan, I was able to take her to games, we shared season tickets until she joined the air force. During her early years I took her to see Ken Griffy, he beat the Dodgers 1 – 0 with a home run.  Every nephew/niece is now over 21. I have been a great Uncle for nineteen years.

The internet brought Dodger blogging into my life and a strange connection to a group of Dodger fans that deserves a bigger column.

I love this Dodger team.