day seven

My dad is 69 years old. He is a very smart man. He started his own business about 25 years ago, one that still continues to be successful. He has an uncanny ability to predict money making stocks – so much so his stock broker calls him the Maestro, often buying the same stocks my dad does. And his knowledge of sports trivia is phenomenal – he can easily rattle off the winner of the NCAA tournament in 1978 without blinking an eye. He could also probably tell you two or three of the team’s stars and where they played in the pros.

But despite his intelligence, he is terrible at navigating anything even close to technology up to and including a cell phone. Yes, my dad is the rare person who, in 2008, still does not have a cell phone. Correction, he has a cell phone, he just never uses it or brings it with him anywhere. I am quite certain he doesn’t even know the number.

Yesterday, we had planned for him to pick me up at my house and then head over to the USC UCLA game at the Rose Bowl. When my notoriously early was ten minutes late, I knew something was up. I called my mom who confirmed my suspicion he did not take the cell phone. Worse yet, he didn’t get a map from my mom to my house which he sometimes does when he goes to unfamiliar places. (As a side note on how crazy my dad is, on a few occasions he has been known to do a dry run to prevent either being lost or late.) My mom also confirmed he left his house an hour earlier. I live maybe 20 miles from my dad.

I went outside to keep an eye out because many people have difficulty with either our outside gate or placing my house on our street. Ten minutes later, my mom called to say my dad just called – he was driving around lost and that maybe I could wait outside in order to flag him down. Did he say where he called from? No, we both assumed a pay phone. I walked toward where I knew there to be a pay phones with my mom still on the line. She had given him my address, but unfortunately, she got the numbers mixed up. But then I saw him and I waved to him. He continued up my street having not seen me. I tried to run, but he was going pretty fast. What to do now?

I waited at the intersection, called my mom back to sort of debrief the whole thing. We both agreed he should have brought his cell phone. He finally drove back and I successfully flagged him down. He admitted he was very frustrated and had a bit of rough go at the whole trip to my house. I guess before he even left our town, the freeway onramp was closed getting the whole journey off to a sour note. He had me drive the rest of the day.