"That Will Be $18"

When you move to a new town, especially a small town, the best place to get information of the local area is at the barbershop. Such is the case where I now live. Barbers are on top of everything happening in town. Just think about it, they have customers coming in from all over town dumping all their problems on him, proudly bragging about all their achievements, and filling him in on all the local current events.

As I was getting my hair cut the other day I asked the barber how was the local ball teams in the area. He assumed I was asking about the local basketball teams but I was really asking about the local softball and baseball teams. It turns out the local basketball teams are pretty good around here and he gave me a complete rundown on the season and how they were doing in the state tournament. I didn't want to interrupt him as he sounded as though he was pretty excited about the team so I let him ramble on and I pretended to be interested. When I thought he was done I let there be a little air in the conversation so he wouldn't think he miss understood me and be embarrassed. Then I asked him about the local "baseball" and "softball" teams.

He soon finished cutting my hair, which doesn't take long these days, and said "That will be $9." Nine dollars? That is a bargain compared to where I just moved from. I gladly paid him the $9 and kicked in another $2 for his retirement fund.

Now for those of you that don't know, I moved to Wisconsin after living in the DC area for 9 months. For the most part the cost of goods and services are about the same in both places other than housing and apparently hair cuts.

When I lived in Arlington I used to go up to the local mall (the great thing about Arlington is there is always a local mall if not two) and get my hair cut at a place called The Barbershop, appropriately named. The Barbershop is designed to look like an old time barbershop with a contemporary flair. It has the barber poles and wood floors when you walk in. It also has a "u" shaped bar in the middle that mimics something out of the local tavern which you can belly up to as you wait for your haircut. And up on the wall is a large flat screen high definition TV with some type of sporting event always playing. When it is your turn to get your haircut they just yell "NEXT!"

When my turn came to get my hair cut it was a short Korean/American women who yelled "NEXT." Unfortunately for me she spoke broken English and for me that can be hard to understand.

K/A Women: "Have Seat. You take glasses off."

K/A Women: "You want hair cut today?"

Me: "Ah, yeah."

K/A Women: "How you want hair cut?"

Me: "3-1/2 on top and 1-1/2 on the sides."

K/A Women: "You sure you want hair cut that short?"

Me: "Yeah."

K/A Women: "You sure? That short."

Me: "Don't worry if it is to short I am sure it will grow back."

She started. Her hands were a blur. Snip, snip, cut cut. Done in under 5 minutes. And she did a damn fine job.

I followed her up to the cash register with that feeling you only can get after a fresh hair cut, breeze flowing through the hair left on my head, it always feels so cool and refreshing. (No smart ass remarks here ok.) She punches a few numbers on the cash register and says "$18 please."

Me: "$18? My hair isn't worth $18."

K/A Women: "$18."

Me: "I should only get charged 1/2 of the regular rate since I have half the hair as most people."

K/A Women: "$18."

Me: "Look at the guy over there. He has a full head of hair, getting it 'styled', it takes over 15 minutes to cut his hair and he will be charged $18."

K/A Women: "$18."

Me: "Ok, ok here is my debit card."

K/A Women: "How much?"

Me: "Huh?"

K/A Women: "How much?"

Oh, I get it, you want a tip. Silly me. You want to charge me $18 for a hair cut and you expect a tip too? Yeah, ok.

Me: "Ok, give yourself $3 for a total of $21."

K/A Women: "Sign." "Thank you, have good day."

Me: "Yeah, right."

As I was walking out of there I am not sure which lost more weight my head or my wallet.

Lesson of the Day: Never Order Fish on Saturday Night

Just got back in from my weekly date with the wife and decided to check out the blog world to see what has been happening. It was nice to see one of our old neighbors respond to one of my postings. I hope he sticks around and shares his comments with us. It was also nice to see my young'n j finally decided to join us. I hadn't heard from him for so long I thought maybe he joined up with Hilary's futile campaign effort. (If you don't get this joke you need to go read one of his recent post on his blog.)

We went out to one of the local restaurants tonight here in Wisconsin (which shall remain nameless because of the outcome) like we usually do once a week. Before we left I told her "Let's go someplace we haven't been before." She agreed so we lit out for a local supper club. I am not sure why but it seems like every other restaurant in Wisconsin is called a supper club.

I ordered the special, prime rib with seasoned french fried potatoes, the soup of the day clam chowder, and a Leinenkugel's Honey Weiss beer. All in all a good meal. I normally will only order prime rib about once a year so tonight must have been the annual ritual.

Wifey ordered another special of the day, deep fried perch, seasoned french fried potatoes, and a Coke. Needless to say she didn't share the same enthusiasm for her meal as I did for mine. Now normally in Wisconsin fresh panfish is the biggest restaurant seller around. On Friday nights anyway. As I write this she is bent over the great porcelain god giving her meal back to nature. I never gave it a thought and apparently neither did she but the perch they gave her was probably left over from the Friday night fish fry.

Glad I ordered the prime rib now, I was close to ordering the perch because I was having a craving for fish tonight. I am not sure why I changed my mind.

The moral of the story: Don't buy Friday nights fish special on Saturday night.

Baseball ..............Just a Game

Folks it is that time of year again when the snow starts to melt, the birds are flying back north, and the days are getting longer. Spring is in the air and it won't be long and the sweet smell of barbecue will be in the air too.

This is one of the best times of the year. Spring training for baseball has started and the anticipation for the upcoming season is growing. Who doesn't like the green, green grass of a baseball field, the bright white lines on the field, the smell of hot dogs and the 7th inning stretch.

Take me out to the ball game, take me out to the crowd, buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks...............................



It has been years since I have been this excited for the baseball season to begin. The Detroit Tigers are back and it looks like they may be better than ever. Who can't be excited about the trade this winter that brought Cabrera and Willis to the Tigers. If the middle relief holds up this could be the missing pieces to a World Series. I am so excited I think I may even purchase MLB Ticket on Direct TV so I can watch the Tigers this summer. I am sure the wife will be happy.

When we talk about watching the Tigers I think they have two of the better announcers on TV, Mario and Rod. They are truly entertaining and a joy to listen to. I am not sure who does the radio broadcast anymore because I can't get a radio station with the Tigers on it. But I can tell who use to do the radio broadcast, Ernie Harwell and Paul Cary. Never has there been a better pair on the radio than these two men. I could listen to these two, close my eyes and actually picture the game being played. Ernie's stories, history of the game and play by play were second to none.

I was about 8 years old when I started following Tiger baseball. I remember them just coming up short in 1967 of getting to the World Series. And then they came back in the 1968 World Series from being down 3 games to 1 and won the World Series. This was a great time for not only Detroit but all of Michigan. This was the year of the riots in Detroit that all but destroyed it. Detroit and Michigan needed the Tigers and they came through. I can still remember the players, Wert at 3rd, Stanley at short (I know he was an outfielder but when Kaline came back from his injury they needed to put him somewhere and he took Ray Oiler's place at short stop), McCulliff at 2nd, Cash at 1st, Freehan behind the plate, and the outfield consisted of Horton, Northrup, and Kaline. McLain and Lolich were the two main pitchers and I will admit I get a little fuzzy on the other pitchers. Gates Brown was the ultimate pitch hitter. There was not a DH in those days.

Tiger stadium was alive that fall of 1968. Our teacher brought a TV into our classroom so we could watch the World Series. This was before TV got their paws into sports and put everything on so late at night you can't stay up to watch it. It was primarily black and white TV too.

We used to play baseball in our backyard everyday when we were kids. We would imitate our favorite players. Mine was Kaline, old No. 6, sis's was Willie Horton, our neighbor's was Stormin' Norman Cash.

I actually got to go to a Tiger game once and they won it 1-0 on a Al Kaline home run. Denny McLain was the pitcher that day. I am not sure it was 1968 because I know Kaline was hurt for a lot of 1968. Doesn't really matter anyway it is still a sweet memory. We sat out in right field and I can still remember that home run just clearing the center field fence. Now if anybody remembers Tiger stadium you will know that the center field fence was 440 feet from home plate. That was quite a poke for a non- steroid player.

I will leave you with this video. I don't think anybody could sum it up better than Ernie Harwell.