Who are you?

The thing Cas and I do every Christmas and birthday is try to come up with a cool activity instead of a tangible gift.  We each had homes before we bought a house together, so we had more stuff than we knew what to do with when we moved in.  We put half of that stuff in boxes and bags and gave it to whatever charity was willing to pluck it off the porch whichever day we were ready to donate.  We don't need stuff.  

Christmas of 2019 brought us two things to do.  We already played Whirly Ball before the world turned on its head, which is good, because it's a group game with a ball and some goofy bumper cars.  It just seems like a lot of contact in a CoVid world.  What we had to wait for was the concert.  He wanted to see The Who when they passed through Dallas last month.  I think you can guess what happened, there.  I got the first email saying the show had been postponed indefinitely.  The second email said the whole deal was off, and a refund was on the way.  Bummer.  He wanted to see them.  So, we developed an alternative.  Thank you, YouTube.

We had several shows to choose from, and the final decision came down to a show from 2017 and one from 1982.  Both strong contenders, but in the end, we selected the 38 year old show.  Rather than the reality of what we may have seen at the American Arilines Center, we opted for the band in their prime.  They were younger, fitter, and very energetic.  

If course, we tried to have the full concert experience.  We poured beer into plastic cups.  

We did consider the comedy (only for a moment) of throwing $30-$40 out the back door of our house as we held the plastic cups, just to have the full experience of paying too much during a rock show.  We opted to keep the wallets closed, though.  

And because I had the amazing good fortune to marry someone fun, there was a break between songs when Cas disappeared up the stairs and returned with a beach ball.  Of course.  

All in all, a great success.  We joked about lines at the bathroom and how long it would be before the parking lot cleared out.  Had we actually attended a show in person, he theorized we would have found a nice bar in the neighborhood and wait for the rest of the crowd to dissipate before driving home.  To that end, we sat at the bar between our living room and our kitchen and had a post-show cocktail.  

So, it wasn't exactly the full concert experience, but at the moment, it's as close as anyone should probably come.