Cheers this ain't

Sometimes you want to go
where everybody knows your name..

Virtually everyone my age knows the theme song from "Cheers", even if it is sappy and somewhat annoying. The show, of course, was great, but that doesn't matter right now.

Today, I was in downtown Houston, literally across from Minute Maid Park. The Razorback and I went to the sports memorabilia show at the George R. Brown Convention Center while our wives went and shopped--a fair deal if there ever was one. Anyway, the show ended at 4, so we left a little bit before. We headed over towards MMP and the entertainment area and figured we'd have a drink.

We tried to open the door to the Home Plate Bar (where the Missus and I had lunch a few hours before) and found it locked. So we went next door to the BUS, a place I usually like to go.

We walked in and it stunk. Not the locale--it literally, actually had a sewage problem. A large portion of the bar smelled like a cesspool. However, considering our other options--that is, NONE WHATSOEVER--we ordered a couple of beers.

So, here we are, across the street from the baseball stadium the week before the Super Bowl, in an area where nobody really lives, with the mercury hovering around 50 degrees, on a SUNDAY, at a bar.

Where it smells like...you know.

And we were, literally, the only people in the bar. With the exception of one poor little bartender who had probably bored her own nasal passages out. How bad do you feel with someone who works for tips at a place that has no customers and smells like a Port-a-Potty? It's got to be a miserable life.

I've never closed out a bar (well, I'm not going to admit to it, at least), but I sure felt like we were doing it at 4:20 this afternoon. It was absolutely surreal. After that, I'm certainly looking forward to spring and baseball season.