Aug. 13, 2022 - AA Day 13
Shave was beautiful today. I used a Rockwell 6s as my only daily driver for over a year and, honest to goodness, I don't think I ever had as smooth and irritation free of a shave as I did today, with a razor that just 10 days ago brought me to my [metaphorical] knees.
Decided to open the door to one of the best features of the house today the laundry chute for the SOTD pic. You're welcome. I know y'all droolin' over my 80 year old house. Speaking of - replaced my water heater today - and in the words of my dad, the best part about water heaters dying is you spend $600 and you have nothing more to show for it. You had hot water yesterday, and now you have it again today. Good times.
Anyway - The Zenith continues to impress, although I do wonder if it's going to end up being too floppy for my preference - I like my boars to be a little bit more on the scrubby side, but this one just keeps breaking in. Hopefully it slows down, or, I don't know, maybe it doesn't and it's still amazing.
While the MMOC performed effortlessly today and I have for sure reached autopilot mode with it, I did accidentally grab my blackbird as I prepared for the SOTD pic. Thankfully I caught the error and fixed it before shaving - but dang that stainless felt good in hand compared to the lightweight nature of the MMOC. My daughter, too, seems to be pulling me back towards the rest of my collection, haha. She dropped in while I was taking my prep pictures and getting the shave ready pre-shower and climbed up to check out the brushes I wasn't using. The curiosity of kids is the best. 13 shaves in and the blade is still excellent. I've settled into a great 2.5 pass routine where I go with the grain and then mostly against the grain (though some spots just across) with a bit of buffing and it's a very excellent shave. Probably not quite BBS all over the place, but, pretty dang close.
Sonder again felt very aquatic today, probably the grass in it. I'm so glad I chose this one for the month - I'm not remotely sick of it. In all honesty, while I do have some other great scents that I'm looking forward to and some other razors and brushes that I'm excited to use again - I'm really not feeling the pull like some have expressed. This setup is excellent and I'm very happy with it.
Sonder thought of the day:
Showing up is so important. I mentioned earlier that I changed my water heater today, but in reality, my dad changed my water heater. I'm 34 and probably could have figured it out solo - but my parents were coming in town for my daughters birthday party today (turns 3 monday) and he offered to help so I took him up on it. It wasn't a super fun job by any means, but learning from my dad is great bonding time, and now that my kids get to be involved and continue to get to know their grandparents, I appreciate so much about the time and energy they put into being present in their lives. They live about 2.5 hours away, but they don't miss anything that they're invited to - no birthdays or major life events. If it's happening, they show up. Doesn't matter if my dad had worked 70 or 80 hours in road construction the week before, they show up. And it means a lot. As I think about their lives, they're people, too. Parents are people, we know this, but there are moments where it hits and as I was thinking about the Sonder moment of the day for me, today was one of those moments. My son absolutely adores his "brampa" and my dad takes that responsibility really seriously - he loves the boy so well and he has fun with him and he just, he shows up. My daughters love their grandparents, too - particularly "gramma." Early on when we had kids it was a struggle for my wife and I to adjust and my parents to adjust to how we'd navigate our relationship - them wanting to be around all the time with grandkids and us wanting to maintain a healthy family of our own and we had some hard boundaries conversations, but I appreciate how we've come through it. As I look back now I see that they were just trying to figure out how to be grandparents at the same time we were thrust into the parents role and it was the first time for all of us. My dad turns 60 this year and I'm too aware of the limited time we have left with him while he should still be vibrant and active and able to do things. He worked hard manual labor for many years and I'm sure that took it's toll on his body, but I'm hopeful for another solid 6-8 years of hunting and fishing and working on things together. Gosh, that's rough to type. Anyway - my kids love him (and them) and knowing what his life looks like, knowing the rough things he had happen to him as a kid and the bad crowd he fell into as a young adult, I'm just really grateful for the ways my dad raised me and how he keeps showing up for me and for my kids, even now.
Have a great night, all.
#mammothmafia
#RawHoggin
#GEMsOfWisdom
sotd.djudgement_invitations: [<DjudgementInvitation 868>, <DjudgementInvitation 2124>, <DjudgementInvitation 2991>]