My neighborhood seems to be suffering from intermittent blackouts.  My phone line is completely dead.  This being the end of Ramadan Eid holiday, tomorrow will be the soonest someone will be out to fix look at the line.  I am at the cafes again until then.  So in the interest of distracting myself from all the work I should be could have been doing, here is something else:

Until recently it had been around 10 years since I had gotten a real haircut (strictly DIY).  Finally, about a year or so ago, I decided it was time.  With a picture in hand of what I wanted, I ventured off to a barbershop near our apartment in NW Portland.  There I met Veronica, who was to be my first and only barber until leaving for Egypt.  I was thrilled with my new arrangement, and went in almost like clockwork for a trim every 3 weeks.  When I got here I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, having become dependent on the service of a professional.  After a couple of weeks my hair started getting a bit too shaggy for my liking, so I ventured out, with same picture in hand, to a nearby barbershop that had been recommended to me.  Long story short: I knew I was in trouble when he broke out the thinning shears.  So after my hair grew out again to something workable, I bought some clippers and shears and went to town DIY-style once again.  I’m actually pretty happy with the results (although I know now that I will never be able to match Veronica’s perfect old-timey fades).

the inspiration

the copy

This got me to thinking:  I should grow ought to be able to grow a mustache.  And with a bit more Dressel blood in me I would probably have the right ears.  This got me to thinking a bit more:  I’m not a thief, and do not aspire to be a bank-robber.  Here are the real inspirations:

the style                                             the love                                    the attitude

Phones, internet, and electricity are all nice, but I miss home for other reasons.

Now back to work the old fashioned way, with pen and paper.  I hope the lights are on.

‘The trouble with the world was,’ she continued hesitatingly, ‘that people were still superstitious instead of scientific. He said if everybody would study science more, there wouldn’t be all the trouble there was.’

‘He said science was going to discover the basic secret of life some day,’ the bartender put in. He scratched his head and frowned. ‘Didn’t I read in the paper the other day where they’d finally found out what it was?’

‘I missed that,’ I murmured.

‘I saw that,’ said Sandra. ‘About two days ago.’

‘That’s right,’ said the bartender.

‘What is the secret of life?’ I asked.

‘I forget,’ said Sandra.

‘Protein,’ the bartender declared. ‘They found out something about protein.’

‘Yeah,’ said Sandra. ‘That’s it.’

– Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle

Cotaa’s Balacona

Breakfast of Champions:

2 slices Egyptian flat bread dipped in 2 unrefrigerated eggs; fried

1 banana; sliced

maple syrup

Nescafe; 1 sugar

equal parts Juhayna tropical juice cocktail and Baraka sparkling mineral water; iced

1 angry Marti cat; eager to express her opinion on current political events

After 7 long weeks in Egypt, I finally have a functioning internet connection at home.  Stay tuned.