Thursday, October 16, 2014

A Travelin' Tuesday

Earlier this week I had not a Manic Monday but a Travelin' Tuesday.

I woke up at 5:30am to get a start on the day, get my RSS feeds and other news read, and to eat a little breakfast.

By 7:30am I was out the door. The rain cleared by 7am and forecast called for the rest of the day to be dry, so it was top down driving weather. First stop of the day was an old folks home for a business association meeting that I attended for Hop Angel. Before the meeting I chatted with Harold who not only is a member of the business association but also mayor of Rockledge, the town (make that borough) a few yards from Hop Angel.


The meeting was in the home's computer/training room. Even old age isn't a reprieve from stupid motivational posters (there were at least 6, none of them motivating anyone). Somehow I doubt mgmt of the home wants the residents to show leadership. Nobody has ever been inspired by one of these posters so they probably don't have to worry.

My car is still rather new and while rather modest does have a bluetooth phone connection.  I was able to catch up with my business partner Patrick who called. He couldn't make the meeting and wanted some details. It's still a novelty talking to someone through my car. My last car I had for 13 years. It's quite a quantum leap in technology.

I had 30 minutes at home before heading to the Delaware River City Corp's ground breaking for the Baxter Trail. I am a big fan of the DRCC, which is working on the Northeast Philly section of the East Coast Greenway, which will be a 2900 mile path from Maine to Florida. The DRCC has been making great progress on their section. Being my own boss and working non-traditional hours, I have been able attend most of their ground breakings and follow-up ribbon cuttings. Like the railroads and interstate highway system, the greenway is a 40 year project. Happily we are 20+ years in now and are actually seeing it happen.

It was a glorious day to be on the river.



Pleasant Hill Park at Lindon Ave is way nicer than when my grandfather used to take us kids there in the 70s to get us out of our mother's hair for a hour or two. People always like to harp on the good old days. I pretty remember them being sort of crappy. The Hatcheries at the park are much nicer now too.


Before the ground breaking, I ended up chatting with my 2nd mayor of day, Philadelphia's mayor Michael Nutter, who Patrick and I got to know when he was running for his first term as mayor.


Back home to park the car, grab a light lunch and quick nap. Then I was on foot for the 1.5 mile street hike to the Grey Lodge Pub for Tuesday office hours. Office hours were productive and a several special guests showed up.


At 6pm,  I was out the door and hiking to the Market Frankford Transportation Center to catch the El and Subway to the sports complex. Maureen's department had use of her company's suite for the Flyers game and there was room for me to join.




Having suite tickets, I did the douchey thing and went through the VIP door. I thought twice about it but went in anyway as I was running a little late. This was a mistake as the whole experience took way longer to get to the suite than just going through a regular door. Totally serves me right for being a douche.


The suite level at the arena, which is on its third or fourth corporate name, is further name righted to Equus. In previous years, everywhere you looked, it said "Equus" with no further clues, which allowed you to completely have no idea what it was selling. Now they have included "Hyundai". Equus appears to be a super luxury car that nobody has ever bought and that is named for a play where Harry Potter gets naked and too friendly with a horse.


Hyundai seems to have decided that swells who go Sixers or Flyers games are the core demographic of super luxury car buyers with a horse and/or naked Harry Potter fetish. I expect that has to be a relatively small demographic and I would not have expected them to be sports fans. Since I have never noticed an Equus on the street ever, I have to image the cost of suite level naming rights per car sold in Philly metro area has to be insane. But what do I know. Nobody is giving me a huge marketing budget for such purposes, or any purpose.



The Flyers lost but we had a great time. Transportation home was in Maureen's car.

When I was younger, I would never have pictured a day in the 3rd Quarter of life being like this, but I am sure glad it is.

Transportation for the day: 2 cars, 2 trains, and 1 pair of legs.