You might remember, way back in June, we gifted Calib some tickets to a Bucs game in the fall. Well, that day finally arrived Sunday. Sure, we don't have season tickets anymore (we had them for three years), but it's still nice to go to a game here and there. Unfortunately, things didn't start off great for the weekend.
Real talk: (which is what I say when I want you to know our life isn't always just sunshine and rainbows -just you know, most of the time): our car has been having issues. Like, sometimes it doesn't start on the first- or second- or third try. (Brightside: it does always eventually start!) We've had it checked out twice, and it starts whenever the mechanic tries it. Oddly enough, they ran it through all the tests- and it came out fine. This last time, it had been fine for a few weeks, but then Thursday Asa and I took it out to go to Panera for lunch and out to the store. When we got back in the car, it wouldn't start. Ugh.
So, I (who have been having just the best attitude lately, for real, my new anxiety meds are seriously helping) suggested we walk next door and get All You Can Swirl. Froyo makes everything better, right? After we got back to the car, and gave it some encouragement (by petting it and calling it "nice car") it started! (See, Asa and I can have fun together doing literally ANYTHING. Nearly stranded in a Panera parking lot? Good times. Covid for two weeks. At least we've got Soup! Navigating Hurricane shopping at Costco? We're the only people high fiving each other for coming back to the cart with an item!).
Anyway, with Asa's raise, we could finally bite the bullet and buy a new (well, used) car altogether. But, then all that "Extra" would go back to bills. And, that kind of sucks. We were just starting to do stuff! Vacations! Cruises! A savings account! At the same time, my mom is looking into a new one, and was going to gift us her old one (which is significantly newer than ours, 2015 maybe?)- but she wants hybrid and they're out of stock everywhere. So, while she waits for one to become available, we're over here with a 2005 Honda Accord on it's last legs. So much so, I placed a car rental for this weekend to make sure we could make it down into Tampa A-ok! I booked it weeks ago, and got it Friday thru Monday for a whopping $53 bucks. Totally worth the price for the piece of mind.
But then, Hurrican Ian hit. It ruined/flooded/totaled so many cars around the Tampa area, good luck finding a rental ANYWHERE in the Tampa area. They cancelled our reservation "due to a glich" but we were free to get a new rental for $300 for the weekend (despite the fact they said they were out of cars). The whole thing was a lot of bullshit from Enterprise (and I usually like them!) We probably should have called the hurricane price gouging line to report them. But, good attitude me was like, welp, we're taking the car, I guess. Worst case scenerio, we end up in a uber. It'll be fine!
And it was. Come Sunday the car started on the first try (which, it USUALLY does... until it doesn't) and we made our way to PDQ for lunch. We told Calib he could pick what he wanted to do about meals since this was his birthday gift. I said I'd buy food at the game if he wanted, but he insisted it was too expensive, and he'd rather have PDQ on the way, because it's better food anyway (as a bonus, we had a $10 reward so lunch was only 20 bucks!)
After lunch the car started up fine again to head down to the stadium (Calib insists it only does it when I'm in the car, so I literally stood outside the car cheering it on while Asa started it- and spoiler alert, it worked every single time just fine!) We parked at
Al Lopez Park like the good old days. Only, in the good old days parking was $15 bucks. Now it's double that. Winning sure does get expensive for the fans. We made our way up to the stadium, and I texted my mom this picture so she knew the car made it just fine (she seems more worried about the prospect of the car dying than me and has sped up her search for a hybrid as a result).
Calib insisted this was the section of the stadium we sat in for that last game. I insisted it wasn't- that we sat in the opposite side (where we had our season tickets for three years). He was like 'no, you're wrong.' and I insisted I wasn't. So, then he got fed up with me and was like, 'That's it, check the blog! Check the blog! When we get home, I'm checking the blog'. I hate when my blog gets used against me. (For the record about halfway through the game, something in my memory clicked, and I told him I thought he might be right. And, for the record, he was.)
For the most part Raymond James feels the same. Like home. The pirate ship. The giant Bucs flags.
But, it's also worth noting, there are some new additions. Lots of new
Super Bowl nods...
...and a whole new section of seating. That 200 level in the endzone used to be a concourse with food places and palm trees. But now, it adds a whole bunch more seating to a place that actually needs it.
And then of course, there's Tom Brady. Obviously, I see him on TV in a Bucs uniform all the time. But, seeing it in person was weird. Hearing him announced in Raymond James was weird. On the way to the stadium, Calib noted it was the first time we'd be seeing Brady play in person. I didn't think that was possible- did we never play the Patriots when we had season tickets? So, there was Calib in the backseat, going through Wikipedia pages to determine we never in fact played them while we had season tickets. Again, I stand corrected.
There was also a nod, and an announcement about donations for Hurricane Ian victims. Man, I still cannot get over how big of a bullet we dodged, and how terrible I feel for the people who live just a few hours south of me.
Overall, the game was a totally different experience than in years past. First of all, the Bucs went ahead early and it never really seemed like a game, even with the Falcons coming back toward the end of the game, and even with the "phantom" ruffing the passer call on Brady. (A call that was repeated last night on Monday Night Football and maybe will make changes to the rule). I will say, it was
way more exciting to watch Jameis. Dude would sling it, and for better or worse, it was fun to watch, Also, living next door to his cousin might have skewed/enhanced my view a bit- now I'm like, 'don't talk about Jameis like that! That man has a family! Do you even know how awesome his family is?! Because, his cousin inparticular is AMAZING, and I'm so sad she's moving (which is why I feel like I can finally mention I live next door to Jameis's cousin).
Tom Brady is just so... consistent? That's cool and all, but it's not as fun to watch. But, it is fun to win... and it is fun to be in a stadium with so many Bucs fans. It was flat out weird when the opposing team scored and there were just a smattering of claps around us. That's very different than the days where the opposing crowds would errupt around us. (To be fair, the Falcons never traveled that well here- which is why the tickets were the cheapest for the year, and why we decided on this game in the first place)
We had an awesome time at the game though. I miss our days of tailgating and season tickets. It's just such a different experience than being at home. (Though, don't get me wrong, I also love a good Red Zone/Taco day). At home, however, I don't have to slather on sunscreen after every single quarter and still wind up sunburnt. I know it's just early October, but it was a warm one out there. We did have a breeze, and when the sun went behind the clouds, it wasn't too bad. But, it was pushing 90 degrees out there.
The Bucs, of course, ended up winning, 21-15! I don't often see a Bucs win in person. You can get a good "Tampa...... Bay" chant going on as you leave the stadium. A personal favorite of mine.
Apparently, if the Bucs score 21 points, Kane's furniture gives out free tickets to Busch Gardens. At least, that's what they announced at the game, so we decided to stop by on the way home and see how easy it was to redeem. Turns out pretty easy, and the three of us each got a free ticket to Busch Gardens. For Calib it's the birthday present that keeps on giving!
The car started up fine again from our stop, and made it to Wawa for some celebratory smoothies, and then we headed home. As soon as we got into the subdivision- it became pretty obvious something was amiss. Police cars were everywhere along the main street through our neighborhood. One of them was blocking the road, so we decided to go around (I thought maybe some idiot was going too fast and got into an accident). It's not super easy to go around things here because most roads wind around and dead end. So, when we turned at the park to get to home we were blocked by two more police cars. We asked if we were ok to get home, they asked where specifically and then let us pass, without any explanation. When we turned onto our street, there was another police car at the curve. Rounding the curve, we saw another ahead with their lights flashing talking to some neighbors about 3 houses down. It was now pretty obvious that there was even a police helicopter circling, and then Asa's phone rang and it was our backyard neighbors calling us, seeing if we were ok and if we knew what was going on. We were as confused as them, when a police car pulled up to us asking if we had seen a guy, giving us a description.
We had no idea at this point what was going on, only that they were looking for some guy, so we came inside locked our doors and texted our other neighbors to make sure they knew to do the same. Hayden, who had been home alone, had no idea any of this was going on. So, we filled him in.
Then we did some googling to find out there had been a
domestic dispute on the other side of the park by my house and someone was stabbed, and the guy who had done the stabbing was on the loose. They did find the guy and arrest him "without incident" maybe an hour or so later. But, it was certainly crazy! (It also resulted in me forgetting to text mom that we made it home ok, opsies!)
Also, how come whenever I leave the house to do something fun, something crazy happens after I get home?
Vacation,
Covid.
Cruise,
Hurricane. Game, Stabbing? Bananas!
I knew we would make it home in time for dinner, so I had picked up some street tacos so we could add to our taco count without having to do a whole bar. Easy peasy. Love those Costco Street Tacos.
Plus then we sat around catching the end of those games and watching Sunday night football. So, all in all, a good day. The car started, the Bucs won, and nobody here got stabbed. Just what I look for in a good Sunday!
Next Up: At some point we may be road tripping for that new car (and in the meantime, they have FINALLY determined that the Accord's starter is going and are fixing that).
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