Perpetual Ruminations

Saturday

Not so early today, in fact, it's actually getting to be quite late. Of course, that's my normal time -- late. I should have done this earlier, but just didn't get in here right away, and when I did, I was so tired I couldn't keep my eyes focused.

I thought about writing my journal then, but knowing I would only increase in tiredness, I opted to do a little reading and put off writing until later. I also thought about editing a poem I uploaded, just a few little things I wanted to do with it before it goes public, but again, too tired. So, I read some newbies, but didn't get much done in there, either. I went through my mail and cleaned out a bunch of old items, read some things, and then got ready to go pick up Rhonda.

About that time, my brother called, so I talked to him for a little bit, then left. After we got back home, I again logged in and read a couple of things I wanted to finish from earlier. One was a great little poem, a very erotic and passionate little poem. I should have shared the link, but since I'm not writing this in Writing dot Com, but in 750 Words, I can't without going through a bunch of jumping around. I can give the name of the poem, "Please, Please Me" and hopefully you can find it with a search if your interested.

It wasn't a very long poem, not a rhyming type poem, and it's actually quite innocent in it's wording. But the meaning is clear, colorful, and heated things up by the end of it. It builds naturally, flows well, and I found it stirring both emotions and thought.

Anyway, I read it, liked it, and was able to do a pretty good review of it. It helped that it was well written and did not require any in depth thought on how to correct or what my improve things. It was just the opposite, well structured, good mechanics, no errors that I noticed, and just an easy review. I mean, when something is done right, and well, what's to say except it's done right and well. There is one more thing to say, how you perceived the item, how it invoked thought and triggered emotions; how well it was enjoyed. So that's just what I did.

It felt good, too. Not the poem, although the feelings it instilled did feel good. Even so, I'm speaking of how it felt to do a review. It's been quite a while since I got one written, and it felt damn good to write another. Hopefully I get enough time soon that I can get back to doing a few reviews a week. I had at one time wanted to try and do at least one review a day, but that is not always going to be possible with my job. But, a few a week, two or three, should be possible.

Anyway, that's what I did after getting back home, then it was time for dinner, after which was time to trim up my goat-hairs. Say what? Goat-hairs?

Yes, you read that correct, goat-hairs. Although the term was originally used to describe my goatee and mustache, it now has morphed into a generic term for any and all facial hair. Let me explain... Quite some years back, I decided I wanted some change. I didn't know at that time just how much change I was in for, but that's a whole book, and we are just discussing one chapter. Or perhaps that is a whole series and we are only talking about one short story. What ever way you want to look at it is fine. We are discussing goat-hairs.

My daughter was just beginning high school, and I was in a marriage that was disintegrating rapidly. I was also just starting my college education, while in my thirties. I needed some change, and one safe and easy change was my personal appearance. I had let my beard grow out in the winter a few times, I had sported a mustache most of my adult years, but I had never done anything with sideburns. So, I decided I would see how they looked. I let my facial hair grow out a bit, then set to trimming me up a nice pair of Elvis style sideburns.

I thought I would start out with those big full sideburns, since it would be easy to trim them down, whereas if I started out with small sideburns, I would have to wait for my whiskers to grow out before I could increase size. The big sideburns didn't do anything for me, so I trimmed a bit and looked myself over. Nope, not really moving me yet. Again I took some off and checked my look in the mirror. It was easy to see, I was not side burn material. They just did not look natural on my face. So, that was settled, and in a few seconds, one was gone, then a few more and the second was gone.

This whole time had been spent looking and assessing side burns, but I had not really looked past them. See, when I started out, I had a weeks growth over my entire face, a full beard; short but full. When I cut the wide side burns into my cheeks, I drew an imaginary line where the hair needed to be removed, and with a nice swipe of the razor, bare skin surfaced. Next was the bottom, along the jaw, and down. Now, I repeated this on each cheek and each side of my neck, resulting in a dark furry strip right down the center of my neck. It was very distracting, so I removed the hair from the center, but not all the way up to the chin.

As the side burns dwindled to nothing, more and more cheek showed, my neck showed, but my mustache and chin hairs had not yet been touched. I had intended to remove the chin hairs, but was going to leave the mustache. I just didn't know if I wanted it to end at the corners of my mouth, or extend past them. I may have even decided to run the ends down beside my mouth. It all depended on how the side burns looked, and what went best with them. Only now they were gone and what I seen in the mirror was a goatee. Not only did I see it, but I liked it.

So, the goatee stayed. My wife at that time didn't like it, and since the relationship was self destructing anyway, I was even more determined to keep it. My daughter was telling a friend that I had grown a goatee, but instead it care out, "Guess what? My dad grew goat-hairs." Of course the friend had no idea, but soon seen what I had actually grown. Even so, the term stuck and I liked it. From that point on, I had goat-hairs, instead of a goatee.

Over the next month, I received many compliments on my choice of wearing a goatee, which made me both feel good, and more determined to not shave this off. I have a couple of times over the years, but never for very long. Once was for a job, it was required because I was working around foodstuffs, the few other times was just to trim it down and let it grow back out; I get very bushy over time.

This winter, working a lot outside and having very cold temperatures, I decided to grow my beard out again. Not long, about an inch is all, and just to protect my face from the bitter cold and the almost daily wind chills. It helps more than most people think, but I didn't feel comfortable with it. I asked my wife what she thought of it, and her answer was not very positive. She wasn't negative, she just stated that she did not care for full beards, even short ones. I knew she liked the goatee, so tonight I trimmed it back down and that is the story on goat-hairs.

Of course, after trimming that fuzzy hair, I needed a shower, and Rhonda wanted to take one as well, so we decided to conserve water and energy and take one together. She was enjoying the full feel of my lips now that the goat-hairs were trimmed up, and I was still feeling the emotional response to the poem I had read. This lead to a lot of hanky-panky in the shower, and taking much longer than normal.

This is why I'm late getting in here, and why I'm going to end this now, and get back to the hanky-panky~