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» Grandma’s Blue Blanket
30 tiny moments: day 16
Next month my little family and I will be moving back home. We want our daughter to know her grandparents and that requires living close enough to make visiting realistic. Three-thousand miles is just too far to make frequent travel a possibility.
I grew up 750 miles away from my grandparents, a twelve-hour drive that my family made at least once a year.
Without a mini-van.
Without DVDs.
Without Gameboys.
Without “kid’s music”.
Without frequent bathroom stops or a night in a hotel.
And usually without seat-belts. (Once my older brother and I spent the entire 750 miles curled up in sleeping bags in the back of my dad’s truck. When it started raining, he was kind enough to buy us a tarp. That adventure was truly a highlight of my childhood, but now as a parent it horrifies me.)
Lack of technology notwithstanding, there were still plenty of ways to pass the long, long time in the car.
My brothers and I ate lots of candy and drank sodas (but we called it pop), purchased at 7-11s and truck stops along the way.
We read books, colored, and played the license plate game.
We made pillow beds in the car and napped. I usually ended up trying to negotiate a comfortable rest with the hump on the backseat floor.
And when those things got tiresome, we fought.
It was a long twelve hours. But exciting too, for at the end of the trip lived both sets of grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, and hours of fun.
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» How to Live
“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.” - Henry David Thoreau
No comments» That was a close shave
My new Merkur razor, blade safe, and blades.
Simple things are best. That maxim applies to razors, too, I discovered. I have been increasingly annoyed at the increasingly expensive Mach 3 Turbo razor blades I’ve been buying lately. Then I ran across a post on Cool Tools touting the superior shave of a German-made double-edge razor — the kind my dad used to shave with. Classic Shaving has the razors, blades, shave cream, shave mugs, straight razors, and stuff you didn’t even know existed in the world of “wet-shaving,” as they call it. Which is what it is, I suppose.
I did some quick math on my current situation, as follows:
- Mach 3 Turbo blades: approx $12 for 4.
- 1 blade lasts 1 week.
- Total: 52 blades per year x $3 per blade = $156 per year.
Next, quick math on the cost of switching to the Merkur “1904″ with 1-year’s supply of blades:
- Merkur “1904″ = $26.99
- Pack of 10-count premium stainless blades: $5.99/per pack.
- 5-packs of blades per year: 5 x $5.99 = $29.95.
- Shipping: $8.95
- Total: $65.89.
- Total savings Year 1: $86.11.
- Total savings Year 2+: $113.10/per year.
This savings, of course, would not be worth switching if the shave were not as good or better. I am happy to say I like the shave from the Merkur much better. It’s closer, lasts longer, and leaves no razor burn that the disposables gave me. Plus, nothing about the razor or blades is plastic. Look at the detailing on the razor handle. If you could hold it, you would also experience a nice heft to the “1904″ in your hand.
Reportedly, Gillette spent $750-million dollars developing the Mach 3 razor. Seems like a lot of money when a better product was already on the market. BTW, the Merkur “1904″ design comes from the old Gillette double-edge razor, the granddaddy of all D/E razors. Ironic, isn’t it?
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