Hair

Warning, this post is a bit self indulgent and very non-motorcycley. Still here? O.k. My Grandfather was bald and wore a beard. Not a bad look for Grampa. My father has been bald and worn a beard for the bulk of my life. There are two things that I've known for a long time. One, I could grow a beard if I wanted to and two, I will eventually go bald. I've done the beard thing in the past and over the holidays I decided to grow a beard again. No big deal, it takes about a minute for me to grow a beard. At the company Christmas party my lovely wife and I got our picture taken and both points listed above became brutally clear. I had gone right past being my Dad and went straight to Grampa. I don't think I'm quite ready for that. I nixed the beard. I'd heard that shaving a beard off cold turkey can freak out your kids so I went gradually. I settled on a vandyke that is a cross between Coop's devil and Bill Cody. I wasn't too sure about that but I did not look like anyone else I knew, at least. My hair (what's left of it) was needing a trim so I made an appointment to get another flat-top. I was thinking the haircuts have gotten a bit pathetic but I was getting shaggy and what else can be done? Then the blizzard happened so I cancelled the appointment for a haircut. If I may digress for a moment, I mentioned awhile back that I got a promotion at work. The new position requires that I wear a collared shirt and I cannot wear a hat. I currently wear a ball cap every day, mostly to keep metal chips off of my head. I have about a month before I move into that spot so I figured I'd better find some sort of solution to the hair thing. When I was a kid I always said I'd just shave my head when the hair started falling out. Time to be a man of my word I handed the clippers to Mrs. Surly and now I look a bit like Ming the Merciless. You be the judge.
It was -5 degrees here this morning and this is not the haircut for the faint of heart. My boss said I'm ugly as hell and from the co-workers I got two Powders, a Kojack, and the white Shaft. I assume he means the Sam Jackson Shaft and not the Richard Roundtree Shaft. The wife said I look hot. I'll defer to her. I don't really give a shit what anyone else thinks, but feel free to leave a comment. Later.
p.s. If anyone could photoshop my head onto ol Ming's body in black and white and post it somewhere for me to grab I'd greatly appreciate it. My photoshop skills suck.

Snow Day!

When I last posted the winter weather was like spring weather. Rainy, fourtyish degrees. Then, the latter part of January got freaking cold. Like zero and below cold. We had a couple of mornings that were -10 when I went out to start the car in my parka and jammies. The weather has now shifted into full blown, Storm Watch 2007!!!!! Seriously, there is actually a blizzard warning for the county my folks live in. I have to drive about 20 miles to work toward the east. I also live just south of Lake Michigan so this means the closer I get to work the better the chance of getting hammered by lake effect snow. My employers are painfully aware of this and are cool enough to let those of us who live far away take off before the roads get too bad. I ain't gettin paid, but they won't hold it against me. So I'm getting caught up on my blog reading, checking my email and a snow plow drives past. I says to my self "Self", I says. "Self, that would make a pretty kick ass picture for the blog that you never have time to post on would it not?" So, I dump all the pics from the camera and sit here and wait for the plow truck to come back the other way and do the opposite side of the road. It took awhile, but the truck did come back. Sadly I missed the photo opportunity to snap the hillbilly snowboard-skitching in his Carhart bibs behind the Dodge Ram pickup. It was a thing of beauty. He never came back by either. If he does you better believe
I'll get it this time. He's probably in a nice warm hospital bed right now curled up with a bottle of Vicodin. Ahhh, good times. I did get a picture of the mailman spinning his tires in front of the pink house.
I guess the garbage man ain't comin today either. Nice railings there on old Casa del Surly eh? Made em myself, but I digress. I snapped a few pics on the way home from work the other day, too. Nothing like driving one handed through the snow while looking through the viewfinder of a cheap digi-cam rather than watch where you are going. At least there are no motorcycles on the road.
So for those of you who live in areas that get real cold like 50 degrees and have to put on a jacket this is what the winter looks like. It's also not a big deal to most of us. My wife didn't even come home from work today but she's a workaholic and that's another story. That's all for now, if you can go out and ride your motorcycle put on a few miles for me. I'll put on a few pounds for you. Rock on.