Strung Out

Yesterday, I went to get my tennis racquet re-strung. I have an early appointment, Friday, to put the "hurt" down on an old college nemesis (a long haired midget who stands no chance).

I enter the sports store, and am told I need to get strings and then bring them to the counter... so I do. I looked through them for about 10 minutes until finally realizing I had no idea what I was doing... and just chose something in the mid-price range. Wilson syn-gut... which is synthetic gut... because that is what they used to make tennis strings out of... Human intestine...

I get to the counter and the young lady asked what tension I wanted my racquet strung at. For the non-tennis players out there (not that anyone reads this), racquets are indeed strung at different tensions, depending on the player's style of game and swing speed - and what not... Either way, I couldn't remember if I usually had a low or high tension... and so I asked if anyone could help. Nobody could, but I was told there was a book somewhere that could help.

Another lady came and said, "We have a book, but I don't think any of us could read it..." An obvious ploy not to do her job... unless, perhaps, the entire workforce was indeed illiterate...

I said, "Well, can I take a look, maybe I can read it." She says OK and heads towards the back of the store and I followed... I know the stores have stringers that come in, and I had already had to give them my phone number, so I asked if maybe the stringer could just give me a call. A reasonable suggestion, me thinks. Her reply???

"You know, we're not a tennis store."

Hmmmm??? JUST WHAT IN THE EFF IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN????

They are a sports store. They sell tennis balls. Tennis shoes. Tennis racquets. Tennis wrist bands. Tennis grips. Tennis Strings. And, they EFFING string tennis racquets... So why shouldn't I expect to have the simplest of stringing questions answered? I just don't understand the logic behind that statement. Seriously.

Luckily, I keep my cool... and explain that having the strings at the wrong tension will affect my ability to hit they way I want, and so I offer a solution. I wrote down a little description of what I wanted, and was on my way.

As I was leaving the store I asked the girl who rang me up when I could expect the stringing to be done.

She says... "Well, the stringer will be here tomorrow (Thursday)... so it should be done by... Sunday."

WHAT!!! The stringer is in on Thursday... so the racquet should be done by... Sunday? That is four days. Which I could understand, if the stringer wasn't coming in on Thursday. Is logic just not acceptable anymore... Like, well the stringer is on on Thursday... so it should be done by Friday... Doesn't that make sense... or am I just a dreamer...

~Bladdy
bladdy_blog@hotmail.com