I’m not exactly sure how many of my
personal habits acquired or drilled into me during my nearly three decades in the
Army I’ve taken with me into civilian life. One that I am sure of is the length
of my hair. I thought one of the first things I would do upon retiring form the
military was let my hair grow long again. I was mildly disappointed to find it
came out almost all gray and reminded me how unmanageable a curly mop it had
been prior to being shorn for all those years in uniform. After a couple months
I decided I missed the convenience of really short hair and have had it ever
since. I remark upon this because this morning I finally convinced my wife to
give me a very overdue haircut. We’ve discovered during the pandemic that my
haircut is so simple that anybody could do it. This is not to cast aspersions
on my designated barber, my Favorite Panamanian, though. She’s done a bang-up
job ever since taking over responsibility for it early in 2020.
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| The FBR is Ready for the Holidays!!!! |
It was overdue because of an old Panamanian
wife’s tale. This is how I describe it at least. I should have had the haircut
a couple weeks ago but she refused because I still had that cold I wrote about.
She said it was very unhealthy to let the metal cutters touch your hair when
you’re sick. Is it just me or is that just plain weird? At any rate my hair was
the longest it had been since that time, mentioned above, directly after
retiring. I used to get annoyed when elementary school teachers used to crow to
my parents about my beautiful curly hair. I longed for straight hair and I
learned when it’s really short it is, for all intents and purposes, straight. So
there.
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| The Before Picture with Really Long Hair |
Another habit that thankfully stuck with
me was the need to stay in shape. One of the last things my mother ever said to
me was the advice, “never get fat”. Of course, the Army, had a vested interest
in seeing that I followed that advice with monthly weigh-ins to confirm everyone
still met standards. When I got out I found I also missed the workouts and have
been doing them in some form ever since. However, I managed to acquire a lot
more weight than I was comfortable with when I worked full time. I’ve found in
semi-retirement I can devote a lot more time to exercise, mainly because there
are fewer excuses to miss workouts. I reached a goal with today’s weigh-in,
maybe because of all the hair that I lost, as I now weigh the same as when I
commanded an infantry battalion in 1999. I’m kind of proud of that. It will be
a short-lived achievement as Christmas cookies will emerge from cold storage
tomorrow and the Christmas weekend beckons with non-stop hedonistic pursuits of
food and maybe a few beers. Oh, and the grocery store finally had whoopie pies
again today. It just means the ten pounds I’m sure I’ll acquire over the next
few days will give me something to work off when I hit the beach in a few
weeks. A good problem to have.
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| And After - Blessedly Short Again |
Keene Friend stopped by the house yesterday
to drop off presents for the family, including a huge one that he conspired with
my son as well as Great Aunt/Soxfather. I’m most worried that they let him wrap
it because he has a well-earned reputation for excessive wrapping. We’re talking
layers and layers often and other obstacles. So much so that whenever a package
arrived from him during my military career my kids reveled as they watched me
try to pry the package open, a true family legend. Anyways, I’ve got that to
look forward to. He also accompanied us to see this week’s movie, Spiderman,
Far From Home.
This latest Marvel effort is fantastic. It
lives up to the Marvel standard which is lofty and cements Spiderman’s legacy
in the Marvel Universe. It will also go down in movie history as the crossover event
to end all crossovers. While the movie is excellent in its own right, with a tremendous
amount of heart, the crossovers from prior versions of Spiderman were
incredibly funny and in a couple of situations, painfully poignant. It will be
hard to describe without revealing too many details but if you’ve seen the prior
incarnations of Spiderman than you have to see this, just for a well made walk
to memory lane. Tom Holland can be a bit annoying but it’s hard to not fall under
his spell as a truly young Spiderman. He’s faced with his secret identity being
outed by the last movie’s villain and that leads to some very funny moments. He
teams up with Dr Strange, who predictably steals every scene he’s forced to
deal with the teenagers in. Speaking of scene stealing, Zendaya is pitch
perfect as MJ teaming up with Peter and Ned to thwart a veritable legion of
reincarnated bad guys. There are some tough moments and it will be interesting
to see where Marvel takes this character next but if this is Holland’s last
turn, at least he went out on top. One of my favorite movies of the year.
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RECURRING CHARACTERS
BR3 – Blog Reader #3 – granddaughter #3, BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel - second granddaughter; FBR - First Blog Reader - first
granddaughter, ABFA – Amazing Best
Family Athlete = my daughter in law; Wingman – my son in law; Wingmom – Wingman’s mom, of course; Keene Friends 1 & 2 – friends since
high school from my home town of Keene, NH; Soxfather - my brother in law; Great
Aunt - my elder sister; Cantankerous Friend – friend since grade school who likes to argue
about everything, poses as radical leftist to attract women; Kindergarten Friend – friend since kindergarten
whom I reunited with after many years; Pittsburgh
College Roommate– high school friend, also a “Minor Celebrity” in
Pittsburgh; Deckzilla – our backyard
deck which grew to monstrous dimensions once my wife got involved in planning; Maine and Virginia Musqueteras – two
close friends of my wife – her US sisters, my wife is the 3rd musquetera
(musketeer); Riggins - also known as
the Grandpuppy, son's dog; PanaGals
– female relatives /friends of my wife from Panama; Panamanian/Latin Mafia – inevitable group of Latino friends my wife
accumulates wherever we have lived & their spouses; Neighborhood Mafioso - wife's close friend and Panamanian mafia
member, Favorite Panamanian - the
wife (of course); First Friday –
celebrations to mark the First Friday of the Week; Curbside Girls – close friends of my daughter acquired during her
single days in Brooklyn
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