Your leaking thatched hut during the restoration of a pre-Enlightenment state.

 

Hello, my name is Judas Gutenberg and this is my blaag (pronounced as you would the vomit noise "hyroop-bleuach").



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Like my brownhouse:
   dally with a mustache
Thursday, May 31 2007
I was weary enough of my beard today that I cut it all off, though there was a period there during which I'd cut everything off except the mustache. I showed it to Gretchen and she took some photographs, and later I teased her about "that time when she was actually married to a guy with mustache, in 2007, no less!" (I know, lots of people, including my own father, still have mustaches, but they're as scarce as Ivory Billed Woodpeckers among the people of my generation who don't fight fires for a living.)
When I shaved off my beard, I did so outside, using water from the garden hose, which had been heated by the sun. It was a hot day and I doused myself several times throughout the day with that hose. The great thing about an ad hoc in-yard shower is that the water starts out hot and gradually drops into the 50s. You can decide how long to keep showering depending on how cold you're willing to let the water get. The only problem with this arrangement is the lack of privacy in the front yard, which makes nudity contingent on the absence of passing cars or obvious people in the Fussies' yard (which is mostly screened by a row of trees). I've planted trees to block this view, but they're still tiny and subject to repeated pruning by deer.
Because of the dogs, deer don't venture close to the house, and so far my little garden hasn't suffered from the depredations of local wildlife. Today Gretchen bought some herbs and brassicas for me to fill out the garden with, and tonight after I planted them a thunderstorm came through and did whatever thunderstorms do that normal hose watering can't. (Plant growth is always noticeable the day after a thunderstorm, though it barely reacts to conventional watering.)


Eleanor with her stitches, a photo taken May 26th.


Sally in the overgrown yard, May 26th.


Julius (aka "Stripey") in the overgrown yard, May 26th.


Julius (background) and Sylvia (is this her first photo on this site?), May 26th.


Sally and me, May 26th, when the beard was still fairly nascent. That's a tomato plant between Sally and me.


My beard today, just before cutting it off.


My brief experience with a mustache.


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