Hair and other topics as it strikes me...

I grew up more or less admiring women's haircuts such as this. Mom wouldn't allow long hair, so the closest I came to a style was the family barbershop run with orders to shingle the girls and buzz cut the boys. Meh,I lived with it until I got old enough to be embarrassed by having to get a hair cut at the BARBER shop. One of my best hair cuts later in life was by a lady barber, wonderful!



This is a close to a tattoo you can get without actually applying the ink. Someone shaved the hair close in patterns and left a bit long by the ear to do a bit of extreme styling. Cute but very hard to maintain. And if you decide you don't like it, the options are a knit cap or a full shave and wax n' shine.





This is an example of the extreme Dorothy Hamill wedge from the 70's. I actually begged my lady barber friend to give me a Dorothy Hamill wedge. She signed and acquiesced saying that getting the wedge just right was difficult but she did a very nice job for me and my semi curly hair actually behaved most of the time.

Oh and a modified wedge has made a bit of a come back, I see a few styles being sported at work. In this version the wedge is carried halfway up the back of the head and if you sleep on it wrong you WILL get a bad case of bed head and nothing short of a steam shower will get that bad boy under control. Be warned, always check the back of your hair do in a mirror or at least go take a look if your co-workers glance at you and promptly spew their morning coffee.



For those of you who wish to keep an eye on things. Again very ferocious use of hair styling product ...and eye liner...




An example of runway hair competition style, very extreme and getting all that steel scaffolding to stay just so...and you would have to drive a convertible very slowly..oh wait a big old VAN with seating in the back! Yeah!




Now, I rather admire this basket weave look, it is short, very eye catching and I am wondering just how darn long it took to get such a precise cut and whether oxygen and frequent drugs had to be supplied to the shrieking hair dresser.



A very clean cap like cut. Must maintain the line ABOVE the eyebrows, puleeze. I work with people who at age 30 or better coyly peek at me from behind six inch bangs! Yarrrgh.



This is a refugee from a hair show, I would imagine there is a full bushel of hair padding etc being utilized to maintain the height or a short guy named Vern.

Speaking of hair shows...sort of...years ago a girl friend attended beauty school, as part of her final exam she needed a victim..er model..so she could perform various tasks for the examiners. My sister had actually volunteered to be another friends um model. So there we sat for the better part of eight hours, getting,cut, styled, mock perm wrap and a MARCEL! Also a demonstration of pin curls, as I remember. That is a duration test of feet and bladders. My hat and hair is off to the beautician's of the world.



Very nice lion mane for a famous black personality. I couldn't possible name the person's name because I only watch HGTV, Discovery, Food Channel, etc.



Please God let this be mostly appliances. Can you imagine trying to sleep in that!? Nuh uh, no way. I learned something a bit fascinating a few years ago. I attended a Christian Ladies Retreat on an island in Alaska. There were about 15 of us, and we were poly cultural. I noticed my roommate reach up to pick a bit of lint from the hair of a black lady. The black lady shied away gasping, "Oh don't! That's my wig!" The wig was a rather sad matted Afro and looked authentic to me. I wondered to myself, how bad could the hair be UNDER the sad matted Afro wig? It was a puzzlement and meant for diligent prayer.



And then we have the NO hair option. I have seen chemotherapy patients wearing everything on their heads but tattoos. My personal favorite would be a nice lovely gold and black paisley, it would look sort of like a cloche hat only the full forehead would show of course.

One last comment regarding hair cuts. One of the benefits of getting a hair cut at the barbar shop was when the barber would flip on the vacuum hose and suction off all the short clipped hair bits from your scalp, face and neck. I have not seen such an amenity in modern hair salons but I cannot recommend it highly enough for the customers as well as the hair stylists. Do you realize how much hair they cut and fling about and get all over themselves!? Use the vacuum wand on yourself, ladies, you will love it.

Saturday, a LOVELY day to tackle recycling....CARDBOARD...

Above is a picture of the upright freezer in our sun room bearing an overwhelming load of empty cardboard pizza boxes.

You may not think this is a very large load of boxes, I was afraid, VERY afraid to pan left to show the stack of former trees snoozing on the daybed.

DAYBED!? We gotta DAYBED?



This is our upright freezer in the sun room after I unloaded this and a couple more loads of miscellaneous cardboard at the local recycling station, right off highway 42.

I pasted the Obama sticker on the front of the freezer, we will hope it does not become a symbol of the economy etc. etc.

There is even a nice gentleman there who helps you unload and makes sure the stuff gets properly sorted, no newspapers and no black plastic trash bags. Okay then.

Unfortunately we seem to have an endless supply of pizza boxes and miscellaneous cardboard boxes. I shall be making trips to the recycling bins for an indefinite period on Saturdays.

...and NO I do not want to burn them in the fireplace because the fireplace needs a liner.

Also got gasoline today at the Shell station at $2.16 per gallon.

Welcome to the very cozy office......

This is the doorway into the other Health Information Management office. This room is also the Physical therapy room, we keep an old piece of pediatric respiratory equipment there, a large on-it's-last-legs copier, a full length mirror (for PT) a folded up physical therapy platform (weighs 80 lbs), two desks and chairs with computers, two file drawers, a couple book shelves, two smaller desks to compliment the commodious and spacious larger desks, there are extra crutches hiding behind the full length mirror, we keep the wound care nurses supplies, we have several boxes of archived records ready for storage off site, we have the TV/VCR tower on wheels, the rolling cart full of books and puzzles for swing bed patients AND we have a set of stairs used by PT to train people who have had knees and hips repaired, we keep FIVE folding tables stored behind the door AND there is our very own private bathroom.




This is where I sit most of the time.





Department managers desk.



Storage, mostly on wheels.




The Physical Therapist has to drag the stairs out in the hallway to train the patient how to go up and down stairs; "up with the good leg first..."



I forgot, the bathroom has a bathtub and it is full of things such as Resusci-Annie and other teaching devices. We keep the shower curtain closed, because Resusci-Annie stares at a person whilst one communes with nature.

Today it snowed

This is a picture I snapped of two "associates" who were over joyed to go outside at work to try to catch the shudderlingly huge snowflakes on their tongues. The snow melted very quickly but it did snow just as intensely a couple more times during the day. Five more weeks of winter, according to the giant rat.

PENS AND PROPINQUITY

The ink pen pictured above is a favored instrument at work, unfortunately, Purchasing no longer carries them. So I decided to order some of my own....from Amazon.com.



The shorter ink pen shown above is what I got. I accidentally ordered a box of 12 of the MINI pens thinking they were the BIG ones... and they are so cute I shall keep them. Because they are so unique, I will always recognize them when they grow legs and walk off to work at other places within the facility.

Books need book cases and lots of them..... otherwise they would sit around in cardboad boxes and a person would forget which ones they read....

I purchased these three book cases from a large store that sold them to me in heavy boxes. I had to painfully assemble them. I am pretty sure I put them together UPSIDE down but they are made of very heavy press board material and hold heavy books. This section is where husband keeps books from his youth and are of a religious nature.You will also notice the use of blocking devices to keep cats out of the book shelves and the sun from shining intensely upon the books. I estimate this bookcase holds approximately 50 books.



These two previously assembled book cases are where I keep the remainder of my Sci-Fi books. I had a huge collection up until late 1990, when I sold most of them at a moving yard sale before moving to Barrow, Alaska. I advertised and people came EARLY because of the size of the collection. Sold the whole bunch...phew!

The bottom row of various colored binders contain the entire 9 years worth of "Bush Diary" that I bludgeoned my family with over the years as part of my annual Christmas letter. Sorry, guys. One person said they liked the Bush Diaries and I made EVERYONE suffer!





This bookshelf came to me courtesy of Carlah Dee Dah. She was in a mood to get rid of furniture, linens, copper collectibles etc. I drove up to Seattle and she loaded me up. The copper is acquiring a very nice patina, (Alton Brown showed me how to mix up vinegar, water, flour paste rub on copper, let set 15 minutes, rinse off to reveal lovely shiny copper ...uh...any way it looked easy on TV.)

Please notice the rather old encyclopedia on the bottom shelf. It was printed in 1947. I used a set EXACTLY like that as a kid to write a report on camels, one humps and two humps. The original family encyclopedia has long since passed to where ever outdated encyclopedia's go. Once my sister told me she had found a set, I asked her to keep an eagle out to get a set for me and by gosh, she found one! So now I can go look at the lovely illustrated children's stories..um if I wish. Thanks!




These consist of four stacking folding bookcases I purchased at Freddy's. I ran out of room downstairs.



Same stacking, folding bookshelves, three of them, half size to fit next to the door.



...and TODAY, I had lunch with a friend who wanted to visit The Oddity Shop down town after lunch. She found some jewelry and I found this cool folding bookshelf for 50 bucks. Husband kindly went back with me to wrestle it into the vehicle. I was able to get almost all of the boxes full of books that have been accumulating on my couch for the past year crammed onto the nifty new bookcase. I will have to keep a look out for another bookshelf to match as the LARGE CARDBOARD BOX next to it is packed three layers deep and contains about 300 books that need shelf space.

As a result of unpacking all of those books, I am happily reacquainting myself with books I had forgotten all about. Yeah!

I estimate that I have about 1000 books. A book store guy I chatted with in Bandon at his book store related that he had 10,000 books in his garage when he decided he had better start a book store.

9,000 to go. Better clean out the attic.

Update on gas prices and availability of such.......

We ran away to Bandon and got gas at the Chevron station for 1.90 per gallon. Lovely day there too. Went shopping at the local "box" store Price and Pride and got groceries at some savings.



Well, looky here, this price for regular has been posted at the Ex-exxon station and then they closed up and left town and took out the gasoline pumps too. Not to worry,we still have the Shell station as well as the "cheapie" gas at the mini mart on Hwy 42.



Local kids are using the space for a skateboard park and to exercise their pets.

the Peel, worlds smallest street legal car, UK.

I could not resist this little car, I believe it is smaller than my Uncle Al's Metropolitan, he drove it in the 50's and we kids called it the tomato soup can.

However, this vehicle is so small that it can be only useful for short range transportation, no room for groceries unless you tie the grocery cart to the back bumper.

Further, I am astounded that this vehicle has not been featured on Top Gear. Hmmm, it may well have been featured in the past as I have unfortunately only been watching Top Gear for the past few months.

I cannot imagine, Jeremy Clarkson, James May OR Richard Hammond squeezing themselves into this car. The boys could use it for a foot stool...or a movable giant soccer ball.....Hey guys!? How about a re-run of the soccer ball game with the little cars and the Peel as the soccer ball? Huh? Huh?

NOM DE PLUME

I decided to sponsor a lively blog dialog in order to entertain suggestions for First Nations writing career. She needs a nom de plume for the editors at (insert name of publishing house here).

C'mon people I know you can be creative. I think "INA M. GASKIN" is already taken as well as "Paul".

I shall lead off with:

M.J. Woot-Woot

For your viewing.....pleasure?

Click to make bigger, you GOTTA see this poster.

As if often the case, I see something on television that catches my eye (No idea why this one did) and I begin viewing in the middle, get interrupted, see the next bit on another day etc etc.

Death Race 2000 was filmed in 1975 starring amongst others; David Carradine (before Kung Fu I think), Sylvester Stallone (before Rocky) and Fred Grandy (Before the Love Boat sailed). Well, everybody has to eat. Movie stars must wince occasionally when these old beauties pop up.

Death Race 2000 is set in an America where Mr. President lives in Moscow and each year he sponsors the most popular show in America. Five contestants and their navigators race from east to west and who ever kills the most pedestrians wins. That simple. They must have saved a lot of money building the cars, they were all light weight sporty type cars with lots of deadly looking appliances glued on; horns, jagged teeth, large knives.

There is not much of a plot except the granddaughter of a revolutionary force is the navigator for Dr. Frankenstein (David Carradine). There are attempts to capture him to force Mr. President to stop the Death races. uh,huh.

When I spotted Sylvester Stallone as Machine Gun Joe sumpin' sumpin', I thought it was someone doing a poor imitation of Sly, that snarl, but nope it is him in all his glory one year before writing, directing and starring in Rocky.

I noticed Fred Grandy as Herman the German, navigator for um, um, some Teutonic woman driver and he didn't last long, he was fixing something underneath their menacing vehicle and another driver came along and drove RIGHT over poor Herman....lots of Hollywood gore splashing about.

The film was filmed locally in Ojai and the back foot hills of Hollywood because how many times have you watched the same bunch of cowboys galloping like crazy after a bunch of bad guy across those same acres? Yeah, I thought so.

And just so no one feels bad, Leonard Nimoy had a bit part in "THEM" (1957 Giant radioactive ants that moved to Los Angeles)