Hair Report: Locks of Love...

Both my wife and my daughter usually keep their hair pretty long, I suppose a preference that suits them in spite of the required hair washing and the subsequent grief which results in having to make sure everything is thoroughly dry before venturing out into the cold (more a problem in New Jersey where my daughter is than here in SA).

Years ago when my mother-in-law went through a bout of "The C word" and won a convincing defeat over it, there was an issue that she faced - the loss of hair associated with her treatment. For her, there was a very simple fix - a wig. In fact, her wig looked so natural, combined with the fact that she was able to obtain one that matched her regular hairstyle, it simply was a non-issue to people who had no idea of her condition.

As the family celebrated, my wife felt the urge to give something of herself - a sacrifice if you will as a thanks. Recalling the whole issue of the baldness and the wig, my wife learned about some kids who can't as easily go out and grab a fashionable hairpiece that matches their style and personality like her mother could. These people suffer from Alopecia Areata and basically, it is a disease that makes you lose patches of hair or go totally bald. If you are a young man over the age of 16 or so, this could just be a regular hairstyle and you can be the cool kid on the block. But imagine a young teenage girl entering junior high or high school - Britney Spears aside, it probably isn't their first choice for a hair style.

Enter Locks of Love. My wife heard about this organization and though they aren't directly and specifically associated with people suffering from the affects of cancer treatment, they do provide for disadvantaged youngsters who have baldness regardless of how it happened (alopecia, cancer, some other disease etc.). And because she had quite a mane of hair, it was a huge first step in giving back something.

This past week, my mother-in-law celebrated yet another check-up with fine results and no signs of cancer.

And my wife got the call from our daughter in New Jersey, that she had gone to lunch from her job in the hospital, and donated her hair in celebration.

So, off we went to the hair cut place so my wife could make her sixth donation of at least 10 inches or more of hair. And though I wasn't there to get pictures of my daughter going through the process of having her hair cut off, I did take a few happy-snaps of my wife getting several pounds of hair lopped off.

First, they start with a person who has long hair. Because they don't know if you have fleas or have been washing your hair with dog shampoo, they go ahead and give you a thorough scrubbing - or at least your hair. No sense in taking any chances, right?
Then, the nice hair cut lady gets everything dried to a point that she can work with the huge hairdo in question. In this case, my wife's hair was so thick that the lady opted to separate it into two different pony tails. With all this braiding going on, I thought she was trying out for a part in Comanche Moon as someone's squaw (geeze, I hope that isn't an offensive term).Once tied off with rubber bands, the cutting commenced. First one side...

Then the other. After a few little cuts and trims and blows and hair bows, we're done.

A Thankful Thanksgiving...

I confess that I am a sucker for scenes in movies where the director has led you down a path and suddenly, almost out of nowhere, a single scene causes such an emotional stir that even the manliest of men - even me - succumbs to the Kleenex moment. I think of the John Hughes movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles where at the very end, after all the turmoil Steve Martin has gone through with John Candy he invites him to his home for Thanksgiving.

There is nothing spectacular about it, but maybe the music or just maybe that we have learned only moments earlier that the wife Candy's character has talked about the entire movie is actually dead; whatever it is, that single moment leaves you with that emotional feeling where, though you are happy for the outcome, you want to stay in the seats as the credits roll so you can make sure no one sees any evidence of your appreciation.

I mention this because as we celebrated Thanksgiving at our home yesterday, it was all a very casual affair with the usual turkey and fixings. Ordinarily, we meet at my mother-in-law's home, but this year, to help ease the stress, we suggested having dinner here. My brother-in-law has been ill for months and in the hospital and in rehabilitative care facilities. His childhood diabetes didn't end with adulthood, and now in his mid-forties, and the failure of the kidney my wife donated to him over 15 years ago, every phone call my mother-in-law gets brings on the emotional, what if this is it.

We ate and chatted and watched football. Really, it could have been any Sunday lunch, just this was Thursday and we were having turkey. Later, a sister-in-law and her family stopped by having visited the brother-in-law at his rehabilitation center for his Thanksgiving lunch. As the first game of the day ended and the official cutting of the huge pecan and apple pies commenced, we got a call from my brother-in-laws wife. She asked me if we were still eating.

My wife had called her during the week and told her that we would be meeting at our house for Thanksgiving and that if she felt up to it, she should come and bring her parents. It has been some time since she has been to our house so she was asking for street names and crossroads etc. She asked if it was alright if she brought her mother and I told her of course.

My wife quickly cleaned off a few places at the table and we brought in a few more chairs and in the mean time, we cheered on the Cowboys.

When the car pulled into the driveway, my wife opened the door and suddenly made eye contact with me and motioned for me to come over. "She brought Cosme!" This was not the John Hughes moment.

We went out front and by now my son and my nephew had come out to help pull a wheelchair from the back of the car. As his wife instructed me on how to help him get from the seat of the car to the chair, my wife's sister popped her head out of the front door to see what was going on. This was not the moment either.

When we made our way into the front door and had my brother-in-law safely inside the warm house facing my mother-in-law, she smartly lowered herself onto the couch and covered her mouth with a napkin and cried tears of joy; it was as if the half-time recap of the football game had suddenly segued into that music you hear in movies when the guy suddenly realizes that the girl who is his best friend has secretly loved him all along, and he loves her too.

I can't tell you and couldn't possibly describe the visual of seeing a woman so stressed out with grief suddenly overcome with joy - absolute and total relief for at least another moment to be with her son at home. If you've ever seen a person win the pull of a wishbone and not even have to ask what it was they hoped for only to see it come true moments later, this was it. And yes, this was it.

My mother-in-law and her oldest son.

Yard Work Report: Need a Rake?

My wife and I spent the day at her mom's house so we could help out with a few chores that needed to be done. The city is supposed to start brush pick-up in her neighborhood Monday, so we went over for some tree trimming, fence mending, pecan picking, and a little entertaining rake repairing.By the time we arrived, my brother-in-law Junior, had made quite a project of the deforestation of the yard. The house, over in the Lackland area of town, has pecan trees, front and back. But, many of them have outlived their pecan life and the branches fall without warning. So, some major trimming had to occur.

My big project involved the replacing of an old gate with an older gate. I know, doesn't really make sense, but what the heck. A few months back, I had built a new gate for my own privacy fence with the intentions of throwing the old one out with our brush collection. My mother-in-law saw it and said it would be perfect to replace one on the back of her yard. She has a small section on the side of her shed that we often store old wood and stuff in, and the gate covers the ugliness from view. Plus, when some people drink beer, they often get the urge to pee outdoors, and that little closed area allows them the freedom to be one with nature, but not offend anyone else. I know what you are thinking, and no, I prefer to use any of the three "regular" facilities available. I can't take my wife anywhere. Just kidding.So, the gist of it is, I pulled off the old gate with no problem but found that the new old gate was a bit wider and heavier and was going to need some heavy duty hinges. So, a trip to Home Depot, then a trip to my house to grab my circular saw, and we were in business.During the course of all this work, my wife and her sister started picking up pecans. This led to Junior throwing a leaf rake into the tree so as to shake loose some of the pecans. The end result was that my mother-in-law's favorite gardening tool was damaged during the turbulent flight into one of the unforgiving and unyielding tree branches.Junior made a valiant attempt at hiding the damaged rake from view, but my wife promptly ratted him out to the mother-in-law, and over the next hour or so, he began a rather unorthodox attempt at repairing the yard implement.Luckily, my late father-in-law Nando, was always good for having some spare screws, washers and other assorted items handy in his workshop, so Junior had all he needed, provided his imagination held out.

In the meantime, my sister-in-law's husband Armando, used a plastic spatula tied to a rope to lasso a dead branch from the tree and pull it down. Everyone cheered when on his 7th or 8th attempt, he found success.My son watched from mid tree.Naturally, we couldn't let this day pass without some vittles, so the grill was lit and we threw on some chicken, ribs, and a few burgers for good measure.Armando repaired an extension cord that had seen better days.Finally, after several screws, a few pieces of hardware and lots of sheer determination, Junior had successfully put the rake back into clean, dry, and serviceable order. And he even took it for a test drive to prove it.The only problem is, it requires safety gloves, eye protection and a hard hat to use it, due to the China-like refusal to follow any acceptable OSHA standards!

Brunch Report: Taco Martinez #2

This morning, my wife, daughter and I met my mother-in-law and and some visiting family who came in from California and Houston because they needed to taste a real San Antonio type taco. It took a while, but we got it done at the newly opened Taco Martinez on Military Drive just north of Hiway 90 near Lackland's Hamburger Hill.

The location of this new restaurant which apparently opened just this week, is very familiar to us. For years, it was a Bonanza Restaurant, then, when the franchise left, they called it Bandana, so if you happen to drive by, you might confuse the lettering and think that it was still Bonanza. Inside, it looked the same, operated the same, had the same menu as Bonanza, and all of the same Bonanza employees.

When that pooped out, the space took on a Chinese flavor, then perhaps a different Chinese flavor, and now, Taco Martinez #2. I have driven by the other Taco Martinez, but never had the pleasure of eating there.

Okay, to the point. You must gauge everything I say with the understanding that we had a party of 13 people and further, it was easily 10 to 15 minutes before all of us were in place. Though we never communicated to anyone that we would be having an ever expanding group, I was content to accept that the staff was not waiting on us so that we could get everyone in place. I fully understand that it takes a really good wait staff to handle large groups efficiently and it is only made tougher when there are many large groups. Looking around, I could see multiple groups of 8 or more.

When we first sat down, we were entertained by a lady who was complaining about a jalapeño seed being in her husband's taco. In a Mexican restaurant? The Hell you say!
The waitress, then a more senior waitress seemed to roll with the punches and take off the cost of several items on the ticket, though it was clear that this family had eaten about all they were going to eat before finding a reason to complain. How convenient.

Okay, so at about 30 minutes into our being seated and catching up with visiting family, we had still not been on contact with our waitress (other than when we first walked in and got three menus) and several of us were getting quite antsy. I no longer eat at Denny's for lessor of an infraction. As we looked around and saw that a smaller table of diners next to us were already being served drinks (it appears their order had been taken during the commotion of hugging and picture taking), I was taking note of the multiple faces of distress at our long line of tables.

Finally, one of the cousins went to find a manager to request a waitress, and within 15 minutes, we were having our orders taken.

Again, a few things to keep in mind as you read this: The place was packed, it is brand new, and we had a large group. But, I had already made up my mind that I would never set foot in the place again until it had reverted back to Bonanza or at least Bandana!Good food has a way of fixing bad service. I'll skip the further service related breakdowns involving the fact that we didn't receive any forks, napkins or our drinks until long after we had received our food (and at the insistence of several vocal personalities at our table), and just tell you that the food was superb!

Within our group, some people had plates with rice & beans and fajitas, others had soup, a few had gorditas or chulupas, and I had the Carne Guisda with cheese and also chorizo and egg tacos. The size of the tacos and the quality of the contents made for a great value. By all means, order light as most of the people at our table required take-out boxes.I would say that Taco Martinez would probably be a good "to-go" place initially until they get the staff up to speed, but make no mistake, the food was outstanding. Not a single person in our party complained once we were stuffing our faces. It was as if the previous hour of waiting for things to come together had been forgotten.

I'm a sucker for good hand made flour tortillas. Taco Martinez gets 3.5 Tasty Treats for the food and a big fat zero for service. But, again, don't let our experience with a large party during the opening week stop you from giving them a try. I will go back, but it won't be with more than 4 or 5 people at a time.

Lunch Report: Sunday Lunch with my Mother-in-Law

Lest you think that all my wife and I do is go from one eatery to the next, forking out hard earned cash to consume vittles simply for the entertainment of having onlookers observe us as I snap picture after picture, reflecting the before, during and, well, prior to desert portions of our meals, I thought I should let you know that we also enjoy a good home cooked meal from time to time.

So with some excitement this morning, we went along with our Sunday morning activities - me finishing up the lawn that I had started earlier, and my wife reading the paper and doing odds and ends. But we both refrained from grabbing breakfast in anticipation of what was to come around noonish; my mother-in-law would unveil a beautiful brisket, just from the oven as her beans simmered waiting to hit the plates, and the rice would still have steam rising in the air as we would anxiously wait for the next tortilla to come off the griddle.

With stomachs rumbling, we made our way to the smell of goodness, no doubt passing many lessor appreciated Sunday lunches produced by well intentioned mothers-in-law of all types, until we arrived at the source of the brisket coming from the oven, conveniently installed on the back patio to allow heat to remain outside, and to permit jealous neighbors, vagabonds and passers by a fragrant whiff of what was about to end up in my tummy!

Sadly for you dear readers, the Internet does not allow me to convey the beauty of the scent of this magnificent ensemble. A picture and these important words will have to suffice. Mmmm, Mmmm, Mmmm Mmmm - That was a Tasty Treat!

Must See Place Report: San Antonio Shoe Factory and General Store

Where else can you go and get a Coke for a dime, a bag of fresh popcorn for a nickel, see a bunch of antique automobiles and watch a lady make a pair of shoes right before your eyes? Right here in San Antonio of course.

Another in my series of places you should see even if you live here is the San Antonio Shoe Factory and General Store located at 101 New Laredo Highway. This place is a great outing for people who have little kids. Not so you can let them run like wild banshees around the place, but because the price of admission is FREE, and the cost to feed your little hellions isn't much more.

When you first arrive at SAS, you see what looks like an old movie set that might have fit in an episode of The Waltons, contrasted against the tire shops and furniture stores of San Antonio's South Side. Before you get in, you'll appreciate some well maintained older cars and the long covered walk reminiscent of the loading platform of the old stage coach or maybe a train station.

From the outside, you can see the nicely restored signage and a a comfortable front porch where customers sit and mostly, wait for their wives to finish shopping. Yes, not everyone who visits SAS is there for the popcorn and cookies, a good number of visitors are there for the shoes.

In case you didn't know, SAS is famous for their comfortable designs and you can see them on fashion runways in communities for the aged, everywhere. Though I do have to confess to owning several pairs of the more fashionable penny loafers, which are very comfortable.

When you get inside the store, the first thing that greets you is the kitchen area complete with old fashioned stoves, refrigerated cases and friendly ladies ready to serve up a soda from the new fountain, a hot cookie or some fresh popcorn.

Up until just recently, they used to serve Cokes in the small bottles for a dime. Now you get your choice of Coke or Diet-Coke in a fountain cup for the same price. If you'd rather skip the soda, enjoy a cup of really good coffee for just a nickel. Don't let your Starbuck's Barrista know - he may just shit himself!

Inside the store, there are several older cars that members of the staff will be happy to take your picture while you sit in them. Or you can pose with a big Brahma Bull standing down in one of the aisles.

I can't overstate what a great deal this is for the aunt or uncle who finds the need to entertain the little beasts that your sis dropped off so she could go to the mall. The cost is less than the price of gas and the kids will learn how to make shoes from scratch. Seriously, I say put the little rug rats to work and call it a day.

My mother-in-law used to take my kids and the their cousins on a SAS field trip several times during the summer when she would watch them, and the kids loved it. They would each come home with their own bag of selected old fashioned candy, perhaps a set of free shoelaces, and quite often, a stomach ache.

Look, don't take my word for it; you owe it to yourself to take the short drive, stop in and check it out. And the next time your family comes to visit San Antonio and they have had enough of Sea World, Fiesta Texas, the River Walk, the Missions and the hundreds of other places to go, take them to a genuine inexpensive treat, and get yourself some nice loafers.

*And no, I don't get paid for this, I really do like the place.

Lunch Report: Home Cooking with Olga

So my wife and I had to swing by my mother-in-law's house Sunday to pick up some pictures or something. The plan was that we would drop in quickly, maybe long enough for a cup of coffee, then off to HEB Plus over on Potranco.

It just so happened that Olga, the mother-in-law in question, had made a roast with potatoes, carrots and get this, fresh green beans. Not canned, not frozen, I'm talking fresh as if she had found them on the ground in her back yard. Actually, they had come from La Fiesta.

At any rate, how can you pass up on roast on a Sunday?

In addition to the aforementioned en tree, she cut me a half-tomato, then covered it with fresh avocado. Mmm, Mmm, Mmm! What a tasty treat.