Yesterday, we went to the ballgame in Phoenix. It was a big event for my wife and me because it was the first time we'd been to a big indoor venue since February of 2020, just as the world was shutting down for the years of the plague.
The venue was Chase Field, renowned for its swimming pool and retractable roof, which rarely gets opened up during day games, especially as we approach June and the other summer months.
The first test was taking the Metro light rail into downtown Phoenix. We chose a park and ride that had indoor parking. Our rail ride would take us through downtown Tempe and the Arizona State University campus (right past the school's basketball arena and football stadium) over the Tempe Town Lake (a dammed-up portion of the Salt River, or Rio Salado), a stop at the Sky Harbor airport's Sky Train and into downtown Phoenix by the Phoenix Convention Center.
We wore masks aboard the train, but many did not. To each his own.
Once we parked in the park and ride, we walked across the street to the light rail station and attempted to purchase tickets. I had trouble getting the automated kiosk to accept my credit card. A friendly gent, who I thought worked for the Metro line, came over to help out, and he figured out that I was putting my chip into the slot backwards. Sorry for the confusion, but two years of just tapping the card softened my insert-card-here skills. It turned out that he was not a Metro employee and was wearing his Diamondbacks colors. My wife called him an angel sent to make our day easy and enjoyable.
So for the first time in a long time, we were out in a place where we didn't know people, with an assortment of strangers just waiting for the train. We chatted with the guy who helped us. There was another guy waiting who was dressed up as security, but actually that was his costume for Phoenix Fan Fusion, a comics and other pop culture event being held at the Convention Center. Another attendee, dressed all in black as Obi-Wan Kenobi - with contact lenses and a swooshing, lights-up lightsaber - also bought a ticket and stood with us.
