Stylin’

Inspirational song: Grease (Frankie Valli)

Out of genuine curiosity, are people really this freaked out by their hair growing an extra half inch? Is it that bad to be just a tiny bit shaggy? I really haven’t noticed anyone who looks so weird that I approve of the desperation gripping the nation. No, you don’t have to cut it yourself with a Flowbee. You can get away without begging your girlfriend to attack your head with dog clippers. And you certainly can wait until it’s safe to pay a stranger get within touching distance. Maybe it’s a reflection of me spending the last seven months staring at my own head in the mirror, waiting for my hair to grow out at all, but I am totally comfortable with the idea of the trendy “look” of 2020 being shaggy hair with obvious gray roots. I’m going to lobby for this. I will encourage my peer group to adopt the natural look. It will be a bonding experience.

I delivered the heirloom bassinet to my daughter today. I had taken the one her father and his siblings had used as babies, passed on by my sister-in-law, and sanded down any spots where the paint was chipped. I sealed it under two coats of spray paint. Visually, it appears unchanged from when it showed up in my house, but it feels a little safer. I don’t know that there really is lead paint under where the last person painted over the top of it. This way, we have ensured that if there is, there’s no way for little fingers to get close to it. Littlest Smith will only be in the bassinet for a few months, moving into a crib by the time they are doing any significant rolling. Still it is way cool to have this piece of family history. The one my daughters slept in when they were newborns is long since gone. I have no idea what we did with it, but I know that by the time we had our first military move, it was history.

I wanted to help with set up of the nursery while I was dropping off the bassinet, but I had spent too much of my energy shopping for and preparing a chicken salad for lunch. By the time they started moving kid stuff out of the garage and assembling the stroller, I was a useless hulk. There is still between one and three weeks until time runs out. Maybe I will be able to provide aid in that time.