Duncan's Blog

five o'clock shadow or five-o'clock shadow

noun

1. the rather dark stubble that appears on a man's face some hours after shaving, typically in the late afternoon if he shaved in the morning.

The actor who played Gregory House, MD always seemed to have one.

Mine usually looks like that too. Sadly, I have shoulder length hair with a very receding hairline. I only shave my cheeks and neck. The look that I have is American bagman. Given that there is a lot of gray that doesn't get colored, it makes me look even older.

I am unapologetic. Fortunately, I can't get fired for my poor, outdated look.

Got me a pair or two from the 99¢ Only Store back when it was in business. Oh, I have pair of prescription glasses in a glasses' case in a bag that holds my checkbooks.

i hadn't noticed that things were getting to be indiscernible until I hit 45. I had finished nursing school and on the job I had to mentor someone. Came the time for us to administer an injectable so I told the young snooty thing that you have to look at the bottle and look at the medication administration report and you have to verify the five rights:
The right patient,
The right drug,
The right dose,
The right route,
and the right time.

So I'm holding the tiny bottle at different distances from my eyes and slowly turning the bottle around.

"What are you looking for?" she asked.

"Darndest thing," I said, "this bottle doesn't have the dose on it."

She took the bottle and said, "There it is!"

I took it back and stared at it. "Wow, when did they start printing those numbers so tiny!"

"Oh, they haven't changed," she said. "You just probably need glasses."

That was probably one of my first f**k y*u moments.

I had insurance but wasn't going to piss away good money on something as silly as glasses. So instead, I bought myself a magnifying glass. Oh yeah, that was real smart. Fits right in your shirt pocket! Nope. It was more trouble than it was worth.

So I went to the 99¢ Only Store and bought two pairs of magnifying readers with the ugliest frames. One was pink and the other was neon green. The uglier the glasses, the shorter amount of time you want to keep them on.

I've since gone to Kaiser and gotten the real kind of reading and for the computer. I still prefer the cheaper ones.

The local union office at the Department of Veterans Affairs was evicted by the tRump administration. And I had to pack it up and ship it out to storage somewhere.

It's the end of August and the temperatures are in the low 100ºs. I drive a 2016 FIAT 500L. It has limited trunk space. Generally, that's of no consequence since I am a singletarian who seldom travels with more than one passenger. I don't like moving heavy loads even when it is not broilingly hot outside. However, the union's paperwork needs to be put into storage.

Donald did some horrible sh*t to us. He had done something similar during the first administration. That time, he evicted us from the building and decreed that we were not allowed to use any of the agency's 'resources' such as copier, email, Internet. This time, it got worse. He stopped allowing union dues to be made through payroll deduction. He then rescinded our contract with the V.A. He then evicted us and said we were no longer allowed to conduct most business. And he demanded that all of the stewards who were still employed by the agency go back to work full-time in their capacity as employees.

So I'm angry. I can no longer represent employees, and I can no longer represent employees when managers are misbehaving. I don't wish people dead, but I hope one day this one learns that there are consequences for these actions.

Are we at a time in the universe where everyone knows at least someone who has 'transitioned' by gender presentation? In my earlier years of learning of this process, we were taught the terms, pre-op, post-op, and no-op. Some transitioning persons went through one or a combination of them.
...
I met him decades ago (during the early- to mid-1980s). I was working as an office temporary (a temp) at the Bankers Trust Company in Manhattan. He was responsible for formulating questionnaires that were used as tools to get potential customers/investors. I was a word processor or worked typing on a word processor. He was friendly and we spoke quite often.

He was a vegetarian (or maybe a vegan?) and came to New York in the 1960s from Iowa to study music.

Eventually, he had left BTCo to become a music teacher. After years of service teaching and writing extensively about choirs, he retired and then decided to become a woman.

I never asked her about her feelings during those years as a man. What brought it about? What made you want to make such a drastic change? How has your life changed?

She, of course, never really reached out to me. We became those friends that you have at xMas time when a dime store card is sent with a few generic lines of good cheer and joy in the new year.

Is anyone at fault? I don't know. I sort of lost interest. I also didn't want to struggle with watching my mouth. Sometimes there are people who enter your life who are not necessarily going to be there forever. I guess he or she was one of them.

I gave up wearing anti-perspirant in my late 20s. And I gave up wearing deodorant in my 50s.

[Taken from sweathelp.org]

"Two Types of Hyperhidrosis

"Excessive sweating is divided into two categories to help clinicians and sufferers understand their cause and then approach treatment. The two types of hyperhidrosis are Primary Focal and Secondary Generalized. Understanding the difference is one of the most important steps in understanding hyperhidrosis.

"Primary focal hyperhidrosis refers to excessive sweating that is not caused by another medical condition, nor is it a side effect of medications. Excessive sweating is the medical condition itself. This type of sweating occurs on very specific areas of the body (described as focal areas) and is usually relatively "symmetric" meaning that both the left and right sides of the body are affected similarly. The most common focal areas are sweaty hands, sweaty feet, sweaty underarms, and sweaty face or head. (Notice that we say 'and' when we list the focal areas? That's because most people with hyperhidrosis experience excessive sweating on more than one area--especially those with sweaty palms, they almost always also have sweaty feet.)

"Primary focal hyperhidrosis often begins in childhood or adolescence, especially hyperhidrosis of the hands and feet. Interestingly, although people with primary focal hyperhidrosis have episodes of excessive sweating at least once a week, they usually do not experience excessive sweating while sleeping. It’s also been shown that primary focal hyperhidrosis may be inherited and many members of the same family may suffer from this condition (but sadly many never talk about it with each other because of embarrassment). If hyperhidrosis seems to "run" in your family, you may be able to help researchers better understand who gets hyperhidrosis and why.

...

"The other main type of hyperhidrosis is referred to as secondary generalized hyperhidrosis. This type of excessive sweating is caused by another medical condition or is a side effect of a medication. That’s why it’s called secondary - it’s secondary to something else. Unlike with primary focal hyperhidrosis, people with secondary hyperhidrosis experience sweating on larger or other areas of the body (described as generalized areas). Another key difference between the two types of hyperhidrosis is that people with secondary generalized hyperhidrosis may often experience their sweating symptoms while sleeping. With secondary hyperhidrosis, excessive sweating usually starts in adulthood, whereas primary hyperhidrosis starts in childhood or adolescence. Finding a potential treatment for secondary excessive sweating often involves first determining what (if any) underlying medical condition or medication may be the root of the problem. In the case of secondary hyperhidrosis, you don't want to eliminate an important symptom of an underlying condition."

PROBABLY TMI in your questionably humble opinion, right? Well, it's my sweat so what's it to you? Truth be told, no man is an island (except Manhattan) and sweat can affect many of those who approach or are in close proximity. Weekend Update: Roseanne Roseannadanna on Smoking - SNL (We learned about this from Roseanne Roseannadanna when she reported meeting Dr Joyce Brothers in a sauna).

I live in the southwest and this is a brutal month regarding heat. I marvel at people who go outside and run regardless of the weather. I wait until it's very late to take a walk to the grocery store (1½ miles each way) to burn some calories. But when it's in the mid-80s at dusk... forget about it. I'll just wait until the fall to do that kind of exercise.