futbol

The Cowboys lost yesterday and I made it home safely. I am grateful. During football season I have to plan my drive to work to avoid as many of the most rabid fans that I possibly can. Texas Stadium lies where 114 and 183 split from one another and then cross Loop 12 and these freeways are how you gain access to the stadium’s parking. The game started at 3 pm and the weather was warm and smoggy, so I figured the tailgaters would be there in full force by noon. It’s a scene you don’t want to be involved in if you are “through” traffic. Scalpers lined up on the shoulder of the freeway for a mile and traffic tangled for at least a mile more as the people in the right two lanes haggle for the overpriced tickets. It’s illegal to re-sell tickets within, I don’t know, a hundred feet or so of the stadium, but apparently not illegal to bring 60-mile-an-hour traffic to a standstill.

I was lucky. I passed the stadium about 11:15 am and saw only one scalper. I could tell I got through just in time. Another 15 minutes and it would’ve taken me 20 minutes to make a 30-second drive by.

At least it’s a stream of cars going in to park. After the game the it’s a flood, always some accidents, probably caused by drunks. Especially at night people see the left-turn lanes as their way to a quick drive through at the stoplights. Eeek. I met a passel of them on a bridge on my way home. Narrowly avoided a head-on at 20 mpg. I had to quote Red Forman: “dumbasses.” After 8 hours confined in that dome who wouldn’t want to hurry up and get home? I passed the dome at 11:15, drove more miles to work, did my 8-hour shift and a spot of overtime and drove back only to find at 8:30 pm there was still a backlog of vehicles trying to get onto the freeway. They had been sitting longer than I had and had had to pay for the privilege. And unbeknownst to me, the ‘Boys had lost, so mostly they were not happy campers.