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Being Bald is a Pain in the Ass

Ah, aging. It really sucks. Just ask your folks and they will tell you. Or stick around here because this is probably going to turn into a series of posts, complaining about my experiences. Let’s go ahead and take it from the top.

Just logged my 55th trip around the sun in June. As my wife was cutting my hair, it was looking less and less sparse, and not in a good way. We discussed shaving it off but didn’t do it, until I received an electric shaver as a gift from my wife, ready to go the minute I was. Finally, I just said fuck it and did the deed.

Really, from the front, I couldn’t tell the difference. However, the front 3/4 view was something that I definitely knew was going to take some getting used to. So began the rituals.

For me, to keep it looking, um, bald, I need to shave every other day. I barely shave my face that often! If one does not keep up on the maintenace, bad things can happen. Things like velcro head. This is an actual thing (all the bald fellas, what up!) where the layer of fuzz on your head acts like the sticky side of velcro. Towels stick, shirts and, especially and, sweaty workout clothes. I’ve actually gotten trapped once, flailing away in the closest until my wife came and helped me escape.

Now that I’ve been at it for a few months, including a few weeks without a shaver, I’m still at it, with modifications. I have determined that a good routine is to shave once per week, typically on Sunday. That leaves me a few days to let the 5 o’clock shadow for form, which actually looks better than fully bald. Since there is no way for me to keep that length, weekly shaving is how I will maintain.

Uncle

I think I’ve mentioned, more than once, how much I enjoy The Hollywood Car Show. It was fun to make, it was fun to listen to. It was fun. At least I thought so. It would appear that you don’t agree. And, when I say you, I mean the collective, internet, you. All y’all. And to that I say ok, it’s done so you don’t have to see me talk about it anymore.

I was called out on this recently. If it was something I really enjoyed, audience shouldn’t be a problem, right? Except audience (or, more specifically, downloads and page views), is how we keep score these days. I mean, I can’t manage to make any fucking money off of these damn podcasts, so why can’t I hope for more than single digits downloads? I posted these shows here, to Fireball’s blog, Shitter, Facebook, Mastodon and Instagram. And still the best the show could pull was 9 downloads?

This is the frustrating thing about making a podcast. During S01 of my personal podcast project, I was only getting single digit downloads, but that was almost by design. That season wasn’t for you, it was for me to make sure I could complete a podcast cycle (record, edit, assemble, upload, write, post). That anyone listened at all was a treat!

If you did subscribe, thanks. But, you can go ahead and remove it. Pretty good chance that one is not coming back.

Non-Alcholic Beer?

For those that have been playing the home game, you already know that I am a fan of craft beer. I have checked into 1048 beers on untappd, 679 of those unique. This includes at least 3 that are non-alcoholic/near beers.

Of late, me and drinking haven’t been getting along. If it’s evening, my new limit is 1 unless I want to have issues sleeping or otherwise feel icky. If I have 2, I’m probably still ok if it’s early. If I have three, forget it. Day time I’m still ok, but that’s giving me more time to let the alcohol get out of my system. This is definitely an age thing as almost everyone that I discuss this with agrees and has similar issues with The Booze.

“Dammit!” he says. “I really like my drinks!” he says.

A good friend of mine decided it was time to start sampling NA beers. I was able to taste some of the offerings he started with, and it was a very unpleasant experience. This was a few months ago, and since there has been a lot of improvement.

Let’s start with the beers pictured above. They are all from the latest Brewdog Mix Pack that I picked up at my local Total Wine. I’ve only sampled the three that you are seeing, and every one of them is a winner! Not a “that’s interesting, not drinking again” winner, but a legit, I’m-glad-there-are-more-in-the-fridge winner! The Nanny State actually had me, and my wife, fooled. If you would have told me this was a light beer from a craft brewery, I would have believed it!

So when you see me check in to an NA beer on Untappd, don’t worry, my account wasn’t hacked. It was me, getting my (NA) beer on.