Saturday, February 27, 2010

Me and my Mustache


My mustache and I went out for a beer today.  I'm not a mustache person in general, not for my own face anyway.  I am a huge fan of hair and facial hair for the masses, though.  Hair is cool.  It's modified skin cells, did you know that? Yep.  When you modify skin cells you get hair.  When you modify scale cells you get feathers.  Hair is people plumage.  I like that.  Ordinary skin cells get old, flake off and become dust.  But hair, oh wonderful mamal plumage... it becomes a canvas of expression, an indicator of sleepiness, a tool of the personality.  I think more poems should be about hair.  And a man's face is like an etch-a-sketch of hairy fun potential.

As I said, I don't usually keep mustaches and I don't usually keep gaotee's either.  My wife likes me in a goatee so I occasionally wear one for her and will sometimes keep it for a day or two.  Otherwise, mustaches and goatees rarely make it out of the house though I do make them often enough transitioning from beard face to skin face.  This I do a lot as my favorite facial hair status on me is to be growing a beard rather than to be having or not having a beard.  A constant state of growing means shaving once in a while and that's where strange two and three legged mustaches happen or beards that look like anvils.  Good times.

This last four weeks, however, I did the unusuall. I kept a goatee for a whole month.  Perhaps it was my subconcious gratitude to my wife for growing and nurturing our beautiful son.  Still, all good things come to an end, and to continue with the cliches, an end is a beginning.  Tami wasn't too happy when she saw me in the morning, but today was the birth of this glorious mustache.  Yay! I'm not sure how long it will be there, resting casually on my lip like a 70's sunbather glistening by the pool, so I took it out for a beer.  A mustache like this just needs to get out in public for a bit and be seen.  And, it wanted a beer.  Guinness and a mustache, very nice.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Good Morning


(On our way to the Farmer's Market)

It's a good morning. I had gone back to work for two weeks before having a holiday week off. Today is back to work again. After changing my son's diaper and then getting ready myself while he ate with.. of? from? off of?....his mom... while he breast fed, Tami offered to make my lunch so that I could hold Enzo some more before work. She is very sweet.

(Enzo checking out the fish)

Enzo is super cuddly to hold. Growing quite a bit as well. Several clothes are now in the "Don't Fit Anymore" pile. One of my favorite things to do when holding him is to kiss his neck. Super soft. Of course, we chat and look around at the world. This last week for example, Enzo did quite a bit of looking around. Tami worked as a staff development presenter early in the week and that meant that Enzo and I got our first time alone together. For two days he and I would drive off and go walking around for an adventure and then come back for him to eat with his mom every couple of hours when he started looking hungry. That's one thing I can not do for him is breast feed. But, I can take him for walks and show him the Santa Teresa foot hills, downtown Campbell, and downtown Los Gatos. And that's what we did. The rest of the week was eventful as well. Tami, Enzo and I went for our first trip to the rebuilt Academy of Sciences museums in San Francisco. I think he liked the fish. And wow, there were some interesting fish. Beautiful in their own way but not at all in a "wow, I'm hungry and that sure looks like food" kind of way. I told this to Tami and then we started thinking about it and decided that, other than fruit and vegetables, food sure does not look appealing as food in nature. This, I think, is especially true of certain fish, but also true of a cow. A cow just does not make me hungry. Not even when I did eat meat. I'm sure a lion thinks differently. A lion must certainly salivate when it sees a zebra but I don't. I've been to the zoo and nothing I saw looked like a menu item. I have seen wild berries and apples on trees and thought, "that looks good," while I picked and ate them.

(Tami and Enzo in Golden Gate Park)

Yesterday we went to the Computer History Museum with my sister who was staying with us. The exhibit was extremely small as they are still preparing for larger exhibits to open after summer. We will certainly go back then. What they did have was interesting and included the first computer mouse integrated into a widow user interface made by Xerox at their PARC facility in Palo Alto, early disk drives invented by IBM in San Jose, and one of the first Apple computers, the Apple I, built in Sunnyvale. It's amazing how much of the world's digital technology came together within a few miles of my house. Even Google, Yahoo, Ebay, ethernet cables, internet technology, the microprocessor, and so much more, were born within a small radius of home. I wonder what new technology is being thought of right now within these few miles.

About this morning....
I held Enzo, while Tami made my lunch, long enough that he fell asleep in my arms. How much is that worth in dollars?

It takes so little to make a child comfortable and I was able to provide all of it (except his food) for my son before I left for work in the morning. That is a good morning. Looking down at him cuddled against my arm and chest, eyes closed and breathing calmly, arm nestled up towards his face, legs on my arm.... that's the happy image I carry with me today, that is my reward for having a few extra minutes in the morning to appreciate my son.