The Ultimate Challenge

 As a 63-year-old man living the last six years in South Carolina, what would be his ultimate challenge?

Would it be parachuting out of a plane? No.

Would it be climbing a mountain? No.

Would it be running a marathon? No.

How about taking a 45-minute walk at 7 am in New Jersey when it's 23 degrees?

Last Friday morning I knew I had to get my exercise after being in the car all day Thursday driving to New Jersey to visit our daughter and son-in-law.  This is what I looked like as I left the house.

Since my blood has thinned some since leaving New Jersey, this was my preparation:

1. On top of my this sweatpants I put on another pair of sweatpants.

2. I had five layers of clothing.  First I had on a thin, long-sleeved shirt. Secondly, I wore a long-sleeved shirt.  Third, I had on a sweatshirt.  Fourth, I had a Lehigh University hoodie.  Fifth,  I put on a somewhat thin black jacket.

3. I had to slip out of the house without disturbing Amber the Cat pictured below. (Not related to Felix) If you look closely you can see she is watching me as I put on my sneakers as she drinks from her "Jetson-like" water fountain.

4. Pretending I am casually walking towards the door, I make a break for it and open the door to the garage. I open the garage door and I'm ready to walk without gloves into the New Jersey winter weather.

When I returned, my hands were warm and I felt good.  One challenge remained: will Amber the Cat notice me coming in? Should I take my layers of clothing off in the garage or can I sneak by her without her noticing me?

You Can Sail Around the World

If you missed this on the news earlier this month, Cole Brauer, became the first American female to sail around the world nonstop by herself.  At the age of 29, the former Long Island New Yorker, traveled 30,000 miles in 130 days to outlast all her competitors in a sailing competition. (Less than 200 people in the world have ever accomplished this)

At 5 ft. 2 inches tall and 100 pounds, she was on a 40-foot sailboat when she left Spain. She has 500,000 followers on Instagram and posted regularly on her trip. She had some great advice for anyone to follow their dreams, "My advice to anyone is keep those friends that really respect you and understand your dreams and want to be a part of it.  Find the people that are willing to participate in your dreams and don't laugh at you or think that you're crazy, because when you actually get the opportunity, you want to have some people in your corner."

If you copy this below and put it in your browser you can watch a video of her journey.  It is a pretty amazing feat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-MEXwxurKw

BY THE WAY:

In 2022, 15-year-old Laura Dekker, from the Netherlands, completed a 17 month old journey around the world. She traveled 27,000 miles and was 16 when she arrived safely.  She published a book about her accomplishment called, "One goal-One dream."

You're up, wishing you a safe trip!

The Happiest Cities in America?

How can you judge how happy a city is? Recently, a personal finance website, WalletHub, analyzed and ranked the largest 180 cities in the country.  Some of the factors that determined their results were: emotional and physical well-being, income and employment, and community environment. 

Before giving you the top ten of the list, here are a few I was surprised at:

# 15 San Diego, CA.

# 22 Charleston, SC.

#39 Yonkers, NY.

#50 Washington, DC.

#55 Jersey City, NJ.

#86 New York, NY.

#126 Newark, NJ

And these are the top ten happiest cities in the country:

#10 Scottsdale, Arizona

They have mountains, a desert, a very large cultural downtown, and I'm sure some hot weather.

#9 Columbia, Maryland

Twenty minutes from Baltimore, it is suburban and charming.

#8 Pearl City, Hawaii

Pictured above, it has Pearl Harbor and the lowest depression rate in the country.

#7 San Francisco, CA

One of the most visited cities, one of the friendliest, and a place where there is a lot to do and see.

#6 Honolulu, Hawaii

It's ranked number 1 in community and environment and it has the famous Waikiki Beach.

#5 Irvine, CA.

It's in the well-known Orange County and is only 14 miles from Disneyland, how could they not be happy?

#4 Madison, Wisconsin

I've always heard great things about this college town. They somehow have 270 parks and 270,000 people, which is a park for every 1,000 people?

#3 San Jose, California

It has the longest life expectancy, one of the lowest separation and divorce rates, and 300 days of sunshine. That's a lot of sunshine.

#2 Overland, Kansas

They have the lowest poverty rate at 4.2% and my wife and I have been there several times on our trips to and from Colorado. They are only 12 miles from Kansas City and Joe's Barbecue which we have eaten at many, many times.

#1 Freemont, California

It has the highest household income over $75,000 and the lowest separation and divorce rate-not a bad view below either.

"Fun Is Good"

                                     

This is the second book I have read in the last year on the subject of fun.  Mike Veeck, pictured above, is the owner of the minor league baseball team, The Charleston River Dogs, located in Charleston, South Carolina. One of the other owners is actor Bill Murray who lives in the area.  Mike Veeck owns five other minor league baseball teams and his late dad, Bill Veeck was the hall-of fame former owner of The Chicago White Sox.

I have not met Mike Veeck yet, but I drove his son "Night Train" to the airport a few years ago and he is listed in my book as my fourth favorite rider.  I sent "Night Train" (named after Hall-of-fame football player, "Night Train Lane"), my book and I've been in touch with him.  When I spoke at Hall's Chophouse in Charleston, I spoke to the same organization that Mike Veeck has spoken to and I talked about his son and this book.

Mike Veeck and his dad are responsible for starting all the promotions that are common today in sports. He's an incredible marketer who was best known for "Disco Demolition Night" in 1979 in Chicago.  For ninety-eight cents and a disco record you could get into the stadium and they were going to blow up all the disco records in center field before the second game of a doubleheader was played.  It was a disaster: a fire, the crowd rioted, and the second game had to be forfeited

He lost his job in the major leagues and it took him twenty years to get back there and he did it with his philosophy of "Fun is good." This is his business plan for all his businesses. His first minor league team, The St. Paul Saints, won three of his first five years and they had a waiting list of 2,000 people to get tickets.  He created kid zone playgrounds and had a trained pig deliver baseballs to home plate to start the game.

These are a couple of his promotions:

Enron Night with paper shredders at the entrances to the stadium and they kept changing the attendance figures for days after the game.

Mime-O-Vision: He had five mimes lined up near the dugout and they would reconstruct many of the plays in the game.

Salute To Duct Tape was a joke until a duct tape company called and offered money to sponsor it.

Two events that he canceled before it was scheduled was Voodoo Night and Vasectomy Night.

On Netflix is an incredible documentary, "The Saint of Second Chances." It's the story of Mike Veeck's life and it's a lot of fun to watch. And this book-it's a lot of fun to read also.  

Jim McgIngvale, owner of Gallery Furniture, had a great quote in the book explaining the success of Mike Veeck: "Turn your product into something bigger than what it is, which is what Mike Veeck does with minor league baseball.  He turns it into an incredible experience."

The Craziest Trade You Will Ever Hear About

When I started hanging up money from other countries in my car I received an amazing bill of Gandhi from India.  Below is the picture (he's on the top left) and I had it hanging right next to the first bill I got from the South Sudan.(top right) One day a woman was getting in the car and she yelled out, "I LOVE GANDHI-would you trade him for Argentina and Italy. 

I started laughing, because she wanted me to trade foreign currency-I'm just an Uber driver.  It meant a lot to her and I knew I would get another Gandhi bill.  Since I was getting two countries for one, I traded Gandhi.  A couple hours later I told a couple this story and said, "You'll never hear this said again the rest of your life, but, I traded Gandhi."  The husband said to me seriously, "My mom would never have traded Gandhi."

There seems to be always another story that is better and this is it.  A few weeks back I met a very nice couple from Pennsylvania, my favorite state to pick people up from. The husband was a big Philadelphia sports fan and being a big New York fan, we had a great time talking sports.  

However, I showed them some of the bills hanging in my car and he said, "I have a Saddam Hussein bill and if you give me your info, I'll send it to you." It was very nice offer and I gave him my information.  Sure enough, Saddam showed up in my mail today. (Another phrase you'll never hear anyone say or write) 

The bill is torn a little in the middle and it's a good picture of Saddam, although I'm not sure using the word, "good" and Saddam is a great idea.  On the back it says "Central Bank of Iraq" and a big 250 dinars, which looks pretty impressive. I looked it up and the bill is worth nineteen cents. Right now I don't think I can display Saddam in my car, so I'll be showing the back of the bill and say he's on the other side.  Below are the two sides:

I knew immediately that I had to send my Philly friend something, so I pulled out my baseball cards. He's a Philadelphia Phillies fan and I'm sending him a baseball card of one of the best pitchers of all-time, hall of famer, Steve Carlton.  The card is from 1978 which is one year after he won one of his four Cy Young Awards.  The card is not in mint condition, but it's probably worth $2-$5.  I know he's going to like it and I'm sending him this blog so he knows how much I appreciated him doing what he said he would.

HE TRADED SADDAM HUSSEIN AND GOT STEVE CARLTON BACK! WHAT A TRADE!

Have You Seen A Unicorn Lately?

                                  

Supposedly, unicorns are a mythical creature. They look like a beast with one very large, pointed horn coming out of it's head, as is pictured above. However, there used to be unicorns, a very, very long time ago. The earliest accounts come from a Greek writer, Ctesias in the 4th Century BCE. One of the earliest interpretations of unicorns is that it is a, "strong, fierce animal that can be caught only if a virgin maiden is placed before it." I kid you not and I won't tell you more about that interpretation.

However, there are unicorns today in Providence, Rhode Island, in case you didn't hear the news. They are not real, but they really are there.  Someone is leaving 3-D printed unicorns like the one below all over the city and people are enjoying finding them.

It is unknown who is doing it, but it is suspected to be an artist or an art student.  One woman, Betha Wood, was quoted as saying, "In an increasingly stressful world, it's wonderful to see people spreading joy."  Maybe this would be a good idea in every city and town before election day in November?

                                               

                                                          

"NO REPLY"

 

A few weeks ago was the 60^th anniversary of the Beatles performing on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”  Despite what one of my riders said last month, The Kinks were not better than The Beatles. At different points in my life I have found that certain Beatle songs mean a lot more to me.  Here's a few that come to mind:

"YESTERDAY": In 1977/1978 when I was a new Beatle fan, the words, "I believe in yesterday" were very important to me.  I wasn't sure where I was going after high school, what I was going to major in and if I would meet the girl for me. The future was a big question mark and I wasn't looking forward to it.

"IF I FELL": Dating my future wife in the early 1980's, when I drove over to see her I would always sing this song,(badly of course), but I knew I was falling in love with her. Today, when I hear the song in the car I still sing it and think of her.

"HEY JUDE": In the mid-1990's I was working at a business school and sharing an office with an amazing graphic artist, Gary. (He happens to be the only reader of my blog in Highland Park, NJ) The radio was on one day and a high school student heard the song end and liked the song, but didn't know what it was.  At the age of 24/25, I felt very old telling her it was, "Hey Jude."

My oldest daughter made this for me on Father's Day in 2018 with some of the words of The Beatles.

"A HARD DAY'S NIGHT": When I started working very long days, 12, 14,16 and sometimes 19 hours, I thought about this song frequently.  "It's been a hard day's night and I've been working like a dog, it's been a hard day's night, I should be sleeping like a log."

"PAPERBACK WRITER": I do remember in high school or college hearing this song and thinking how cool it would be to actually be a paperback writer.  And it was only a few months ago that my book came out and every time I hear this song, I say, "I am a paperback writer."  "Dear Sir or madam will you read my book, it took me years to write, will you take a look?"

"NO REPLY": It's not one of the best known Beatle songs, but it's about a guy trying to reach a girl. In my case I have found over the last several years a different meaning for it.  It seems to happen a lot that I reach out to someone by phone or email and they don't reply.  As my friend, Larry, my only reader in Bridgewater, NJ. said, "It's just common courtesy." Maybe common courtesy like common sense, isn't that common anymore? 

MY MOST MEMORABLE RIDER COMMENTS IN FEBRUARY

I showed the guy who had not been drinking my Queen Elizabeth bill and he said, "Did you ever drive her when she was alive?" I replied seriously, "No I didn't." He said, "I guess she probably wouldn't have ordered an Uber." I answered, "No, probably not."

The couple told me, "The best Uber ride we ever had was a woman in North Carolina who was incredible. On my 50th birthday she gave us Kazoo's and we played them in the car. She called herself KazUber!"

He: "Do you have anything against shooting deer? I shoot them while I sit on my toilet (Going to the bathroom) with a bow and arrow. I've only killed one so far."

Talking about finding a good bathroom on the road, she said, "I can't take dirty bathrooms, I'd pee on myself first and I have a couple times."

He: "I'm a category five screw-up. I decided to change my life by walking for four days to Charleston, South Carolina from Georgia." (He passed out on the second day, but he did change his life)

I picked up "Q". Me: "What is your first name?" She: "Johnson." Me: "Your first name is Johnson?" She: "No, it's (A long name starting with Q), but I go by "Q"-I've been smoking a lot of weed today." She is a part-owner of a pizza place and I dropped her off there and the sign said, "STONERS PIZZA JOINT."

Grandmother of three: "They can do anything they want as long as they don't burn down my house."

"Our Uber driver yesterday had a special Cadillac that he said he put hydrogen in and a full tank would take him 1,200 miles." (?)

The morning after the 60th Anniversary of the legendary performance of The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan TV show my rider said, "The Kinks were way better than the Beatles. The Beatles had a few good songs. Their management was better."

She: "I've been a realtor for about five years. "He, (her boyfriend) was my second client and he's bought a bunch of houses from me."

Her friend said, "People in New York are kind, but not nice and people in the South are nice, but not kind."

"My aunt had a client who named all her children Italian ice flavors."

"I work for a company that has people in HR who are called "The People Team", but they have no people skills."

Moving to the South she was told, "You're going to have to take valium to learn how to dial it down here."

"My friend was a passenger in a car that was hit by a train in Charleston.  He was okay but the driver died instantly."

"The woman from Brazil gave me one of the best compliments I've ever had, "Thank you for making a difference in so many lives." Me: "You're a cancer researcher, you're the one who is making a difference in people's lives." She: "I hope so."

                                                                MORE COMMENTS

Young man under a lot of stress: "I live with three people who are "bat-crazy." They have mental health issues and we have 30 pets in the house."

I asked the woman who meeting five friends and driving to Disney World, "What do you like best about Disney?" She replied, "I like everything about it."

Me: "How many grandchildren do you have?" Her: "I think I have 14 and 12 great grandchildren with two on the way." Me: "No wonder I don't have any, you have them all."

Grandmother: "The two year old talks me to death. When she goes to sleep I can finally rest."

"My grandchildren call me OG which stands for, "Original grannie."

She: "I was a fireman in San Francisco for three years and then I got a woman's job as a nurse."

The barber said to me, "I've been cutting hair since I was 13. A robot can't do what I can do."

I told the guy who had just arrived from Italy, "You understand English well." He said, "It depends on how early in the morning it is."

The young realtor after his first house sale, "I sat in the house for an hour and a half, just taking it in."

He: "Comfort is where change first happens."

She: "I call tourists in Minnesota, "Tourons."

The barber said, "You have a King Fisher cut." Me: "I thought I was just bald."

The college student from California was blown away by South Carolina, "They seem to have more appreciation for life here."

She: "It's great to be young and in Charleston."

"I watched a movie where the President of Delta Airlines said, "There are 10,000 things that could go wrong on a flight, but it takes only one thing for a passenger to be disgruntled."

The proud mother of two college graduates (engineer and lawyer) said, "I believe in education first."

"My dad played against Kevin Garnett and he never stops talking about it."

He: "I think France gets a bum rap about not liking Americans."

From New York: "In the offseason I used to play basketball with Patrick Ewing, John Starks and  Anthony Mason when I was a junior in high school."

The woman from Iran loved New York and said, "It's perfect."

"Myrtle Beach looks like a big fair."

Getting off of work and into my car with food from a chicken place at 5 pm., I said, "You don't have chicken in there do you?" Him: "No, it's a burger and fries, but I'd go back in and make you some."

ABOUT LILY MY MANNEQUIN:

"She has great hair."

Getting in my car and going to shut the door, I told him to, "Push it hard," and at the same time I started telling him about my mannequin Lily. Suddenly, he pushed Lily right in the face and I started to laugh.  He said, "I thought if I pushed it something would happen."

ABOUT ME AND MY CAR:

21 year-old male: "Like I said before, 100%, this is a once in a lifetime Uber ride."

She: "That was the most interesting ride I've ever had."

The British Tik-Tokers said, "We're in the coolest Uber ever!"

She: "I love your decor."

The Philly sports fan said a minute after admiring by money museum, "I have a Saddam Hussein bill at home that I'll send you if you give me your information."

The Uber driver said, "That's the best Uber ride I've ever had."

"This was a fun Uber ride."

"This is super-duper cool."

"Orange is your color."

"Thank you for talking to me."

"I wish I had something funny to say to get on your blog. You could go around the block."