Mondays Missives

• A time honored tradition in the military before a deployment to a desert environment in war or peace is to develop heinous stories related to sand fleas, dirt, sweat and everything else you can think of that might get into the hair surrounding a guys man-junk. What is the obvious solution to avoid such atrocities? You shave said area of course (or at least you promise the new guy that's the only sensible solution) "All the old timers will be doing it." you confidently assure them.



• It's funny to see them in a cold sweat, in mortal agony on a patrol in 130 degree heat a couple of weeks later when the area starts getting reforested and/or the shaving bumps start getting bathed in sweat.



• War is heck I always say.



• Still feel great when spellcheck says," No misspellings found."



• I enjoy running a string trimmer (weedeater).



• Isn't Weedeater the best name for a product ever?



• After replacing the nylon string on my heavy duty Toro trimmer one too many times I decided the situation called for something more durable and looked to a fine stainless steel cable. The first effort lasted seconds before the ends were frayed and unusable. I placed some splicers on the ends of the cable and formed a small loop with them at each end. The results were amazing for about 5 minutes then the cable snapped off neatly and evenly with the trimmer head. I heard the pieces whirring off into the distance but, never found them even though I looked everywhere in the yard and all the way out to the street behind where I was working.



• I'm sure even Thomas Edison had his off days.