Haircut

Ooooh, Pretty, Show Me More

I missed blogging on Sunday and yesterday; I’m still here, so don’t call out for a welfare check. They were just days where nothing happened.

It started innocently enough. There is a fellow back in Augusta, GA, that I follow on Instagram. He took photos of cars and old junkyard cars, but he also took boudoir photos. I’d like his photos, and he’d hit me back. There was one photo shoot of a car he had taken in an alley with some cool graffiti as a backdrop. I asked him where it was so I could take my Miata there too. He sent me the directions. And I would love to know where those pictures are so I could add one here.

Slowly the car photos stopped, and he just transitioned into the boudoir stuff. We still trade likes. Yesterday he had posted 3 sets of photos, and they were at the top of my feed, so I hit the likes and continued to scroll through the rest of my feed. Down through those I follow, interspaced with ads. This shifted into Miatas, other cars, planes, and more ads.

Then I started getting reels of pretty young women in tight shirts, in between the other stuff. Those reels became women in backlit gauzy fabrics, and pretty soon that was all Instagram was showing. Deeply cut halter dresses. Skirts so short that you thought you saw something. So many headlights shining. My favorite was the woman off-camera with arms in frame dangling a lacy negligee, like getting a baby’s attention with a rattle. Then it is zipped out of frame; the woman pops back in wearing said negligee, blink, she’s gone.

Okay, so you probably figured out how come I didn’t blog last night…

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 11.6%

 

“Local” Bookstore

Along with my lunch in Sandy yesterday, I stumbled on a small bookstore in the town. It was actually in the shopping center I pulled into to find my lunch spot. After eating I headed back, it’s called Once Upon A Tome, so points already before I even went in. Turns out it is a small shop that has been open for only one week shy of a year. They have a decent collection of both new and used books. Of the used ones I looked at, the books themselves were in near-perfect shape. I ended up buying one used book and one new.

I have been missing going into a physical bookstore. I live in “Portland” and there is a very famous bookstore called Powell’s Books here. It bills itself as the world’s largest independent bookstore. It’s a tourist attraction for crying out loud. I have never darkened its door. Mainly because it is in the downtown of the big bad city, but also because it is 4 stories tall; I’d never be able to find a book, too many choices.

Back in Klamath Falls we would visit our local independent bookstore, Canvasback Books, once a month on haircut day. It was easy as we walked right by it on the way to the salon. I liked buying a book a month for two reasons: I like to read an actual physical book more than something on a screen, and it was nice to support a local business.

As it just so happens, I got my haircut the day before my trip to Sandy. Now that I know about the place, maybe I’ll revive the haircut/book-buying event combo. The only thing different will be a 15-mile drive one-way instead of it being right on the way. The drive to Sandy is a nice low-traffic one and is literally only a mile further away from me than Powell’s…

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 14.1%

 

Oh…That’s What She Said

It happened again, see March 25th’s post, I got a ten-dollar haircut. It might have been the same stylist for all I know, but I never seem to get the same one. Of course because the haircut is every four weeks between visits and if I don’t get someone that is memorable for some reason it might be someone who has cut it before. I mean March was 5 months ago.

Today I got in the chair and the stylist said something, something, a great beard trim. And I replied, “Thanks I did it last night.” My normal buzz cut takes all of 5 minutes and I’m out of the chair. When I checked out she said, “That’ll be $10.” I tipped her five bucks because that is what she’d have gotten for the $21 Senior Haircut.

As I walked out to the car I looked down at the receipt and saw that it said: BEARD TRIM – $10. The stylist had probably said, “If any one asks, you got a great beard trim today.”

Hammond, LA – Day 9: Missed Discount

Back in Louisiana for a visit with the oldest person I know at 98, Santa Fe Sally’s mom. We are here for the next week enjoying the humidity and fried seafood. Tomorrow is a visit from Sally’s son and family and there might be a visit to the Big Easy there somewhere.

The rest of the week is jammed full of stuff not nearly as exciting as that. It is crawfish season, so we might eat a mudbug or two. Maybe we’ll test drive a RAV4 while we are here because the Santa Fe Toyota dealer had zero on their lot. I know, we can hardly contain ourselves either.

Wait, I almost forgot today’s big event. I got my haircut. It is a Great Clips-style place. Sally’s Mom has been going to one person at this place for quite a while, so Sally gets her hair cut by her whenever she is in town. Now, me too. This morning, Sally went first (ladies before gentlemen and all) and I went second. Like Great Clips, the senior haircut is a few bucks cheaper than for everyone else. When I checked out, the woman asked, “You’re not 65, are you?” To which I replied, “My next birthday my age will have a 7 as its first digit.” So, I got the discount.

On the way back to the car, Sally said, “She didn’t give me the discount.” I said, “You should take that as a compliment that she thought you were under 65.” She is a couple of years younger than me, but she was more upset about having to spend the extra three or four bucks to see that logic.

Another Day In Oldmanland

The highlight of the day was my once every second fortnight haircut. And when I say haircut, it is more like mowing a lawn, in that I have them put the #2 comb on their shears and just cut everything they can see.

The standard Senior Haircut is twenty-one bucks, but I’m not sure I’ve ever paid that. The first few times I went there I had a $5 off coupon, but ever since then it has been $15 or $16. They always say something like, “If the boss were here, I’d have to charge the full price.” And although I usually go to the same shop, it’s always different stylists.

Today’s haircut price hit a record low; she charged me just ten bucks. I don’t get it; what is the reason for the random price cuts? They are on a salary, and it is so low that they are “sticking it to the man” because they get to keep the tip? Maybe they found that the price cut makes the tip go up? Also, what’s with the “if the boss were here” thing? No one is keeping track of how many haircuts they do and comparing it to their money taken in? Whatever it is, I like it; it’s anarchy.

Haircut and a Band Aid

The only relation of the title terms to each other is that they are both on my head, neither one caused the other. In chronological order:

Band Aid – We need paper in my area for the LaserJet printer. When I load the last ream of either size I schlep on down to the stockroom and stack 4 boxes of the paper on a dolly and wheel it back to the cube next to mine where the printer is. This morning when unloading the dolly I slightly misjudged my bending over causing my forehead to smack the counter top on the neighboring cube. Not hard enough to make me see stars or anything, but enough to cause me to have to hold a paper towel to my head for about 2 minutes using some pressure to get the bleeding to stop. Now I look like a Hindu in training or something as the little circular bad aid is perfectly centered on my forehead. I wonder if it will be black and blue tomorrow?

Haircut – Tonight was our every 4 week haircut appointment. I am always amazed at the color and amount of hair trimmed from my head. It all comes from the sides too, as the top doesn’t need cutting anymore. It has stopped growing up there. It hasn’t all fallen out (yet) but it is thinning very slowly. The hair color is a lot darker on the little shawl thing they put on you than it appears on my head. When I look in the mirror I see predominantly gray, but the stuff that gets trimmed still looks light brown/red.