But May is not for outdoor concerts.  At least not for me.

Red Rocks Amphitheatre is one of the best places to watch an outdoor concert.  Two years ago, Bryon surprise me with tickets to the Lumineers for my birthday in June.  A dark sky speckled with stars loomed  overhead as we enjoyed the music and the setting.  It truly was a memorable evening.

Keeping that in mind, I bought tickets to see Florence and the Machine on May 21.  In the back of my mind, I wondered, “Is this a good idea?”

Not because of the band, but because of the time of year.  Just two years ago on May 19, we received 36 inches of snow over 24 hours.  In fact, May snowstorms are becoming so frequent, I’m no longer surprised to see a Winter Storm Warning posted for May.  May is quickly becoming one of our snowier months after April and March.

I learned a valuable lesson two years ago, when I very optimistically took the snow tires off my car in early May.  Fast forward two weeks, and I didn’t even make it out of our neighborhood before my Subaru slid into a ditch.

Though I still have snow tires on my car, I made the fatal mistake of believing this May would be different.  Going to an outdoor concert would be just fine.

The strange thing is one week ago, it would have been just fine.  With temperatures topping 80 degrees during the day, it would have been the perfect weather for a concert.

A week later, not so much.  With several inches of snow blanketing the ground, I hoped that perhaps the concert might be cancelled.  Then I read the tweet of a steadfast concert goer.

“Red Rocks never cancels unless it’s a state of emergency.  I saw a concert weeks ago as snow fell.  What an experience!?”

I love snow as much as anyone.  As an avid skier, I embrace the cold and snow.  But as a skier, you are only sitting for brief periods on the chairlift and then moving around.

The thought of sitting for 2-3 hours on hard benches in sub-freezing temperatures with falling snow does not appeal to me.  In fact, it sounds downright miserable.

But in my mind, I kept saying.  “Oh, but we paid so much for the tickets!  We have to go, or the money was wasted.”

Long ago, when I took accounting classes I learned about something called “sunk costs.”  The gist of sunk costs is money that’s been spent no matter what.  You can’t get it back.  But you can’t let sunk costs determine your decisions now.  The money’s gone no matter what.  All you can do is try to make the best choices now.

We let go of the money spent and instead decided to stay home in the comfort of a fire.

I got to see something even better than a concert.  I got to see my St. Louis Blues win the Western Conference Championship and go to the Stanley Cup final.

Woo hoo!

 

promoblock