1/31/2018

Full Blood Blue Red Super Eclipse Moon, or something like that. 

The low lying clouds meant I could catch the eclipse to its totality but then it disappeared before it began to emerge. 

That made Aidan pretty happy since he'd been waiting around for more than an hour while I fiddled with the camera. 

One of these days I'm going to have to get a sharper zoom lens. Its own limitations, including the lowest F-stop at 5.6, and my need for reading glasses to focus through the lens-finder but not for seeing it in the sky, and the constant changing of the tripod to keep up with the moon crossing into the corners of the shot... here's what I got.

The east wasn't as showy today as yesterday. Guess it was giving the moon in the west its turn.

But by then, this is all that was visible in the western sky

When we got back home, Bruiser had taken the rare opportunity of getting into the guest room (where I had the camera set up) since I'd left the gate open. Dude is getting some dental work done soon. He had his annual visit to the vet and he'd lost one canine and needs three others taken out. Getting older sucks.

When I went to breakdown the tripod, Aidan was out in the backyard after our walk keeping a close eye on the squirrels. It appears they were watching him just as closely. 

(Betcha can't spot him, but there is a squirrel in this shot as well)

1/30/18

 

 

1/29/18

Saturday morning walk (when my head was a good bit warmer)

This one was a Google stitched panorama, so we ended up with two sets of Aidan and Juno playing from this morning

it's been 9 days since the snow and most of what's hanging around on the grassy areas is hard enough I have to punch a hole and give Aidan the piece to chew on.

1/27/18 Hair Today, Gone Today

When I went in to get my gray line covered up for the umpteenth time in December, I asked Jennifer what my options were for giving this endless cycle up. 

The answer: not many. 

This dark, there was no turning back. You can't bleach it light enough before its completely fried and/or falling out in clumps. 

I could try and "soften" the line a bit with highlights and start to trim off the dark in stages. But it was going to look mottled and odd for a good while. 

Or, for those of us not blessed with the virtue of patience but also not burdened with the fear of no hair, you can do it all at once, shave your head, and start fresh. 

After doing some research, I discovered there was a legit place that would accept dyed hair, as long as it was in good condition, at CWHL, who get it to kids with medically related hair loss for NO COST to them. 

So I messaged Jennifer and told her I wanted to switch  my appointment in January from a "let's try to highlight a bit" to "let's cut it all off."

When I arrived this morning, she was shocked I had been serious about it. 

She said, "I think this is the most extreme thing I'll have ever done!" To which I replied, "Well, at least you'll remember me in years to come!"

I had told her my prom day story, which apparently lives in infamy with Zeke, my forever hairdresser growing up, who was quite startled when I sat in his chair the day of prom, pointed to hair down past my shoulders, and said, "Take it all off."

Jennifer let me do the first cut.

and before you knew it...

a couple she snapped with my phone:

After I posted the photo and video today...

It feels fantastic. I can't stop rubbing the soft short hairs on the back of  my head. 

And it was fascinating to finally see the pattern I could only vaguely guess at when I'd squint at the inch or so of gray right before it was covered up. It's still dark on top since we didn't cut it all the way down to the silver root, but from the ears down, especially in a band that runs from my temples back, is shiny silver.

And I'm lucky that, while patience will never be my virtue,  my mantra from the very first time I went super short (my freshman year in high school) was "it's just hair. It'll grow back." NBD

1/24/18