I am happy to be alive this morning after my commute to work, which normally takes six minutes. This morning it took a good half an hour and four near stagnating situations. I now remember why the Explorer is such an asset in this state. When they say they don’t plough in Detroit, they really don’t plough. I was told by a long-time Detroiter, that back in the day, homeowners on any given side street would come out and shovel the road in front of their driveway as the city would never come to the rescue. I was walking through a couple of feet of snow in drifts and past businesses who were lucky enough to keep ploughers on call. My mother called me up from the south to tell me how bad the weather here was, and she thought for sure the University would not stay open and endanger the lives of their workers by asking them to come in. The sun came up and at least Woodward looks a little clearer.

Fascinating web site on the history of the Pointe’s. Included in the Grosse Pointe Historical Society’s pages is a new slide show called “Puttin’ on the Glitz.” It looks at some of the auto baron’s lives and residences which were almost all located on Lake Shore Drive at the turn of the 20th Century. These giants of the industry shaped the economy and destiny of Detroit for the next one hundred years.

Interesting photographs of the families at play, their mansions and lifestyles. One shot shows Russell Alger and his wife getting ready to fly what looks like a Wright Brothers airplane. Another shows the “Joy Bells” that are now located at the corner of Grosse Pointe Blvd. and Moross. Joy’s wife would ring them to let him know dinner was ready while he was out yachting on Lake St. Claire. In todays day and age, nieghbors would have sued to stop construction much less allowed them to ring. Architectual and satorical elegance abound for those who enjoy the history of the families who founded Ford, Dodge and Packard car companies.

Here’s a crappy picture of the snow on my street yesterday afternoon before it got terrible. I took this from my crappy cellphone camera, so I hope it turned out:

Every Sunday afternoon I hook up with friends at Sweetwater’s on Congress and Brush. It’s a cool little place on the outskirts of Greek Town and, in my humble opinion, they have the best wings and ribs downtown. So there I am on the DPM swinging around the loop. The car is packed with Winter Blast patrons and hockey fans going to the Wing’s game.

There is a couple sitting across from me and, from what I could hear, it was a first date. Now I’m not an eves dropper but they were pretty close.

Her: “What did you do this morning?”
Him: “I made pancakes for my kids.”
Her: “Oh, that’s sweet, I would like to do that with you somethime.”
Him: “Sure, and I already know how you like your eggs in the morning.”
Her: “How would you know that?”
Him: “You like them unfertalized!”
Her: “LOLOL
Me: “LOLOL

Price of the DPM? .50
Price of an afternoon at Sweetwater’s? $25
My encounter on the way? Priceless

Hope you have a great Valentines Day!

I am a huge romantacist and Valentines Day, this Wednesday, is a chance for me to show it. Here are a couple of ideas for lovers, sons and daughters out there to show that other person just how you feel.

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If you’ve seen any local news lately, you’ve heard of the firefighter who was killed by an errant SUV driver. By errant SUV driver, I mean an unlicensed coke head packing heat driving 80 mph on slippery streets with kids in the back seat. What a tragic story and got me thinking about the complete and utter disdain for simple traffic laws many citizens of the City of Detroit have and the utter lack of any kind of simple traffic enforcement (with the exception of about a 3 block radius from Wayne State and bits and pieces of downtown).

I see people blowing through red lights almost every day, I’ve seen cars barreling down Jefferson at well over 80mph, I’ve seen drunk drivers, I’ve seen cars driving over grassy medians. Really, in terms of traffic rules, there aren’t any in Detroit. I can count on my hands and toes the number of people I’ve seen get pulled over for traffic violations by Detroit cops. It’s only a matter of time before terrible things like this happen again.

Had a long weekend. On Friday night, I headed out the Bert’s Warehouse (in Eastern Market) for opening night of the Dirty Show. Certainly a unique experience. The art was interesting, although my taste in erotic art is very limited ( I find much of it gratuitous for the sake of being gratuitous). While the art show is going on, there are various stage acts and cage dancers. There were lots of boobs, it was pretty sweet. A good ole’ fashioned time was had by all.

Saturday night, headed out to the Winter Blast & the U of M vs MSU hockey game. The Winter Blast was cool, I guess. It was pretty packed and I didn’t get much of an opportunity to do anything. Had some dinner at a packed Niki’s in Greektown. From there, we walked over the the Joe to catch the hockey game. The game was fun and I felt like I was back in East Lansing for a while. Afterwards, I finished the night out with some friends at the Detroiter and made my way back home.

A while ago I wrote complaining about Bob Seger only performing at the Palace in Auburn Hills. His roots are here in the D’ and I wondered why he didn’t do a gig at the Joe. Well he must have heard his fans because Bob is returning to Joe Louis Arena on March 13th at 7:30 p.m. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m., Feb. 17th at the box office or through Ticketmaster. This is his first performance in the city in 20 years and March will mark four months into his successful “Face the Promise” tour. Plan on getting in line early cuz’ this concert is one of kind and who knows when Beb Seger will return.