My whirlwind trip to Houston this week to see my Astros battle the Detroit Tigers in an American League wild-card playoff game wasn’t a total loss. Far, far from it.
Yes, the team I’ve loved since early childhood in the late 1960s lost Game 2 of the series 5-2 Wednesday, eliminated in two don’t-blink-or-you’ll-miss-’em games at Minute Maid Park. It was frustrating, disappointing and – despite the Tigers’ hot streak that saw them post baseball’s best record over the season’s last six weeks – shocking. But I’ve got to tip my Astros cap(s) to the Detroit ballclub, managed by former Astros manager A.J. Hinch, who really knows what the heck he’s doing in the dugout.
The reason my trip that began at 7 a.m. Wednesday and ended at almost 1 a.m. the next day was so fulfilling despite defeat is that, in addition to watching playoff baseball, I was able to see and spend quality time with some wonderful folks.
And that made it perfect. It’s why I was able to move on from the disheartening loss so quickly.
First of all, when I arrived at Minute Maid Park, I texted my dear college friend Gerald Gummelt, who was on his way to the stadium with his former BP work colleague Rusty Russell. Moments later, they came walking up and, as always, Gerald and I exchanged a hug and a handshake. He and I have been friends since moving into the same dorm at the start of our freshman year at Texas A&M in fall 1979 – a friendship kicked off by our mutual love of the Astros. That bond has lasted 45 years so far.
After Rusty went inside, Gerald and I waited for the guy I would be sitting with at the game – my childhood friend Perry Pepperell, whom I hadn’t seen since our days at St. Matthew Lutheran School, which closed years ago and wasn’t all that far from the stadium (the church is still there). Although we’d reconnected on Facebook a few years back and have texted and talked by phone, our class has had a couple of mini-reunions but Perry hasn’t been able to join us because of work. So this was my first chance to see him since my family moved from Houston to Conroe in December 1971.
When Perry joined us outside the left-field entrance, we hugged, shook hands and I couldn’t believe I was seeing him after almost 53 years. He’s a hell of a guy and we had the best time sitting together, sharing memories, cheering on our team and catching up. Perry, who works for Stallion Oilfield Services and lives in Leander, was in Houston for work and managed to get away for a few hours to go to the game.
We visited with Gerald for a while both outside and inside, and after we went inside, we even ran into Ronnie Crocker, another friend of mine whom I’d worked with at The Battalion, the Texas A&M student newspaper. I’d seen Ronnie recently at A&M during the celebration of life for Bob Rogers, a former professor and journalism department head who passed away July 4 at 96. Ronnie was kind enough to take photos of Gerald, Perry and me together before going to join his wife.
Late in the game, as my phone was freaking out (repeatedly turning off and on for about an hour), I got texts from Kay that our power had gone out at home. She’d called Oncor and found it wasn’t their issue, so I was going to need to call TXU, but my frazzled phone was below 10% and I would have to wait until after the game when Perry and I got to my car. While we were waiting for what seemed 30 minutes to get out of the parking garage, I called TXU and learned they’d turned our power off because we hadn’t paid our bill. It’s BOTH my fault and TXU’s fault – we’d changed providers over the summer, and when we did, they misspelled our last name on my email address. So we were never getting any bills AND it had slipped my mind, especially since I’d just paid our last bill with our previous provider. Lesson learned! 
After I brought Perry back to his sister’s house, we stood outside and visited for a bit. Then I hit the road for my brother Isaac’s house north of Houston in Oak Ridge North (the same home where we grew up after moving from Houston in ’71) to visit him, his dear wife Phyllis and my amazing niece Lauren. I caught up with them at their favorite restaurant and then we spent time together back at the house, took pictures and hung out with their awesome pups, Sadie, Gracie and Lauren’s sweet little 16-year-old Zoey. I haven’t seen Isaac’s family in a couple of years and it’s the first time I’ve seen Phyllis since she won her cancer battle, so it was fantastic to spend time with them.
So you can see how, despite my favorite of all teams losing and getting knocked out of the playoffs, it was a pretty perfect day. I didn’t get much sleep that night before waking at 7 a.m. Thursday to head into the office, but that’s OK.
What matters is life and how you live it. And Wednesday was a day very, very well lived. 
A Life of Words 