It is Day 91 and I celebrated by having a haircut, it may not be official, but who the hell cares.  My barber had to do the yeoman’s work and I just kind of felt good, especially if I was breaking the law, by a couple of days.  I have been feeling like the scene from Papillon when he is doing the second term and it was for five years in solitary confinement, when he sticks his head out the little window of his cell door to get his prisoner’s haircut and he asks a prisoner in the next cell “How do I look?”

Some may think that I am selfish or vain, because I wanted a haircut, but after over 91 days, I was looking rather shaggy.  I realize that in the real world there are animals that actually look shaggy and perhaps that is part of their charm.  I never looked this shaggy in the Seventies when long hair was chic for men, because there were stylists that kept the men from looking like ragamuffins.  I had no desire to do a home buzz-cut and look like I belonged in a federal penitentiary, even if I was in the lock down.  I know that our governor that tried to get her boat in the water, ahead of the citizens was getting her hair done, though she claimed that her daughter was doing it, just like she claimed that her husband was just making a joke about the boat.  It also came out that the mayor of Chicago was getting professional attention, but you couldn’t prove it by me, but both of these women are part of the elite and I guess the laws don’t pertain to them.  In fact, there was a movement in Michigan not to get a “whitmer” after she complained that the citizens were petty and upset that they couldn’t get haircuts, so, she told everyone to “Google” “how to cut your own hair” and that really went over in a big way with the unions for the beauticians and the barbers; of course almost all other union jobs were idle as well.

I called my Barber on his cell phone to book an appointment, as soon as he felt comfortable to reopen, since the Michigan Supreme Court found for the elderly barber who the state had taken his license from, because he was cutting hair in his shop, so that he could eat, and not lose what he had worked his entire life for and the lockdown for their services became moot.  Now, I know that it might sound crazy for me to have my Barber’s cell phone number, but I have been getting my haircuts by the same barber since I was fourteen.  When the original barbershop opened up in Downtown Detroit, the barbers were all trained in the Roffler “Sculptur Cut” at a secondary barber college founded in 1958, that stressed the cutting and designing using a razor to shape and correct hair in its natural form.  My Aunt originally gave me twenty dollars as a kid and told me to go get a haircut from this shop, as they had a clientele of men that had the old country curly-hair, and I have had that hair forever.  I remember even getting a Roffler cut, just before I had my high school graduation photos taken.  It was always a great experience going for a hair appointment, because normally in forty-five minutes I could get a haircut, a manicure and a couple of pairs of shoes shined, a little bit of luxury for the average working man.

I felt sorry for my Barber, because he like everyone else was out of work for about three months and then he had a myriad of new regulations and hoops to jump through, basically overnight.  Not to mention that he had to book longer intervals between clients, and everyone’s hair cut was going to be longer, because there was so much hair to cut, or because some tried a “whitmer” cut and then they expected him to do a miracle.  I expected an increase in the cost of the haircut and I figured that he needed a special tip as well for all the extra work.    

I also got him a bottle of what has become our go-to wine and I have to pick up another case as we are getting low again, go figure.  I am sure that both he and his wife will appreciate a bottle of Famille Sichel Bordeaux Blanc 2017 as much as we enjoy the wine.  Famille Sichel is a family owned negocient firm from 1883 in Bordeaux, as they were in the procurement process for their locations in Mainz, London and New York.  In 1938 they even bought Chateau Palmer, which at the time had fallen on bad times and have since brought it back to all of its glory.  The family does not believe in resting on their laurels as in 2001 they even built a completely new bottling and storage facility in the Bordeaux region.  This particular bottle of wine is a blend of the two leading white grapes of Bordeaux, namely Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc.  I don’t think that I would be amiss to opine that this wine was aged in Stainless Steel as there was plenty of fruit and very refreshing.  It starts off with a nose of citrus fruits and finishes with some terroir with a decent finish.  As usual, I took a long way around the block to get to the wine, but trust me, it is a pleasure to be back as part of society.