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Shave #39 (454 Open Blade Shaves) of 2021:

Gear: Parker Adjustable injector, Parker blade, Stirling 2-band synth brush, CBL Money tonsorial soap, homemade witch hazel/aloe mix, Fine Platinum AS, and Fine Platinum EDT to finish!

Up early for work. It’s Monday...yet not my Monday (it’s my Tuesday)! Strangely that makes it a little better! 😂

Solid shave this morning. Today the Money tonsorial reminded me that, while I’m currently a bit over the scent (thanks to the 3017...the scent is actually great normally), the performance is still off the charts. It may not have the best of the best residual slickness but it’s pretty darn good. Literally less than a 5 second load (couple drops of water to bloom the puck and a damp synth) and less than a minute of working it had me in enough voluminous lather for 4+ passes. Great value!

Hope you all have a great day!
 
GearNoir said:
Literally less than a 5 second load (couple drops of water to bloom the puck and a damp synth) and less than a minute of working it had me in enough voluminous lather for 4+ passes. Great value!
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I have a couple of the CBL tonsorials in a drawer. I'll get to them eventually, but other CBL soaps will take precedence. I used one about a year ago, I think, and it was excellent.
 
Shave #40 (454 Open Blade Shaves) of 2021:

Gear: Henson AL (Medium), Feather blade, Yaqi Sagrada Familia synth brush, CBL Money tonsorial soap, homemade witch hazel/aloe mix, Pinaud Special Reserve AS, and Stirling Glastonbury EDT to finish!

Tired this morning.

Fantastic shave though. Brought out some of the darkest scents in my den today. They don’t often get to play but they’re nice once in a while! Henson did a smooth n easy bit of work. I keep wondering when I’m going to need to change this Feather but it keeps chugging along!

Made the final decision yesterday to enter into a second mentoring relationship. This young man is a bit older than the college student I’m also mentoring but is also much father along in life. He sought me out, so should be an adventure to see where it goes!

Bible study Zoom this evening. Otherwise, looking forward to putting a nail in this my Wednesday’s coffin!

Have a great Tuesday all!
 
All caught up. Good stuff Chris! I really like your approach to tasting the whiskeys. I’m going to have to go back and do something similar with the bottles I’ve accumulated.
 
DeepSea said:
All caught up. Good stuff Chris! I really like your approach to tasting the whiskeys. I’m going to have to go back and do something similar with the bottles I’ve accumulated.
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Thanks John!

The whiskey tasting has been fun for sure! Confirmed some things for me, broadened my perceptions some, and definitely got some pleasant surprises along the way!
 
Shave #41 (454 Open Blade Shaves) of 2021:

Gear: Henson AL (Medium), Feather blade, Yaqi Rainbow w/ pony synth brush, CBL Money tonsorial soap, homemade witch hazel/aloe mix, LNHC Barber Shoppe PSE, and Zaharoff Pour Homme to finish!

Ru-roh...my immune system must be sensing my upcoming 4 day weekend and letting loose a bit. Don’t give up on me yet...two shifts to go!

What can I say...shave, known elements, great, rinse and repeat!

Should be getting a bit of rain between this evening and Sunday. 👍

Have a great Wednesday all!
 
Going back through my 12 Whiskeys of Christmas sampler in reverse order. First time through was neat, second time through was with some drops of water, this time I’m pouring the last third over an ice cube. Not changing my rankings though.

Tonight last 1/3 of #5: Sazerac Straight Rye Whiskey

Scent: General alcohol and washed out whisky smell. High, clean, clear anise note. I do love anise/anisette.

Taste: Watered down Old Fashioned with a hit of anise. Tastes like a very young spirit, slightly less harsh, thankfully. Harsh orange note. Still a bitter and charred finish.

I can stomach it but ice does this whiskey no favors.

Blended Malt Scotch Rankings:

1) Naked Grouse (neat)
2) Johnnie Walker Green Label 15 year (neat)
3) Monkey Shoulder (neat)

Single Malt Scotch Rankings:
1) Craigellachie 13 year (neat)
2) Grangestone 12 year (neat)
3) Balvenie 14 year (neat)
4) Glenlivet Founder’s (neat)
5) Glenmorangie 10 year (neat)
6) Oban 14 year (neat)
7) Bruichladdich (water)
8) Laphroaig 10 year (water)
9) Ardbeg 10 year (water)

Bourbon Rankings:
1) Eagle Rare (neat)
2) Buffalo Trace (neat)
3) Woodford Double Oaked Straight (either)
4) Jim Beam Black
5) Larceny

Rye Whiskey Rankings:
1) Sazerac Straight Rye (neat)
 
Shave #42 (454 Open Blade Shaves) of 2021:

Gear: Henson AL (Medium), Feather blade, Stirling 2-band synth brush, CBL Money tonsorial soap, homemade witch hazel/aloe mix, Proraso Red AS, and GFT Sandalwood cologne to finish!

Well, made it through the day today and feeling just good enough to get through today I think. Tired and body sore but no choice really.

Great shave today. Only one stutter with the Henson that caught me in a spot. Otherwise fairly smooth sailing. Finished up with a sandalwood combo, which is what I thought I wanted...but as soon as I finished putting them on my brain said “nope, should have gone with Encre Noire”. Oh well!

Well, with the CA court rulings on church worship, our Sunday’s will change a bit. If you didn’t hear, it was ruled that the state/gov can’t force churches to shut down completely or even stop from meeting inside their buildings for worship. Though they can enforce a social distancing/health guideline and a 25% capacity limit. Staff thought we’d have another week or two to prepare to move back inside...nope. The elder board decided late yesterday that we’d go back immediately, starting this Sunday.

That has set things in a bit of a tizzy. Thankfully it didn’t come through later in the week or there’d have been no time to make the necessary changes. I’m still not happy about it.

This also brings me to my ethics dilemma. Should the church have special privileges apart from the general public? What does it mean for our witness if we take advantage of these things? I’m currently of the mind that it would be best to follow the guidelines of the general public. There’s still a mindset though that we “have to get back inside the building and go back to the way things were” and some folks are desperate. I think it’s been a missed opportunity to reinvent a little bit of what church means.

Sorry to rant a bit.

Have a great Thursday all!
 
Going back through my 12 Whiskeys of Christmas sampler in reverse order. First time through was neat, second time through was with some drops of water, this time I’m pouring the last third over an ice cube. Not changing my rankings though.

Tonight last 1/3 of #6: Oban 14 year West Highland Single Malt Scotch

Scent: Let it sit a bit long but I think it’s be pretty washed out anyway. The peat is still there, the dominant note, but it’s quite lightened. Detecting just a little butteryness.

Taste: Again the peat still the dominant note. Backed up with a bandaid, wet char, and wet smoke. It’s all fairly brief though thankfully, lol. The tastes are moderately harsh though washed out. An interesting sip to try, not something I’d probably do again if I could avoid it.

Blended Malt Scotch Rankings:

1) Naked Grouse (neat)
2) Johnnie Walker Green Label 15 year (neat)
3) Monkey Shoulder (neat)

Single Malt Scotch Rankings:
1) Craigellachie 13 year (neat)
2) Grangestone 12 year (neat)
3) Balvenie 14 year (neat)
4) Glenlivet Founder’s (neat)
5) Glenmorangie 10 year (neat)
6) Oban 14 year (neat)
7) Bruichladdich (water)
8) Laphroaig 10 year (water)
9) Ardbeg 10 year (water)

Bourbon Rankings:
1) Eagle Rare (neat)
2) Buffalo Trace (neat)
3) Woodford Double Oaked Straight (either)
4) Jim Beam Black
5) Larceny

Rye Whiskey Rankings:
1) Sazerac Straight Rye (neat)
 
GearNoir said:
Shave #42 (454 Open Blade Shaves) of 2021:

Gear: Henson AL (Medium), Feather blade, Stirling 2-band synth brush, CBL Money tonsorial soap, homemade witch hazel/aloe mix, Proraso Red AS, and GFT Sandalwood cologne to finish!

Well, made it through the day today and feeling just good enough to get through today I think. Tired and body sore but no choice really.

Great shave today. Only one stutter with the Henson that caught me in a spot. Otherwise fairly smooth sailing. Finished up with a sandalwood combo, which is what I thought I wanted...but as soon as I finished putting them on my brain said “nope, should have gone with Encre Noire”. Oh well!

Well, with the CA court rulings on church worship, our Sunday’s will change a bit. If you didn’t hear, it was ruled that the state/gov can’t force churches to shut down completely or even stop from meeting inside their buildings for worship. Though they can enforce a social distancing/health guideline and a 25% capacity limit. Staff thought we’d have another week or two to prepare to move back inside...nope. The elder board decided late yesterday that we’d go back immediately, starting this Sunday.

That has set things in a bit of a tizzy. Thankfully it didn’t come through later in the week or there’d have been no time to make the necessary changes. I’m still not happy about it.

This also brings me to my ethics dilemma. Should the church have special privileges apart from the general public? What does it mean for our witness if we take advantage of these things? I’m currently of the mind that it would be best to follow the guidelines of the general public. There’s still a mindset though that we “have to get back inside the building and go back to the way things were” and some folks are desperate. I think it’s been a missed opportunity to reinvent a little bit of what church means.

Sorry to rant a bit.

Have a great Thursday all!
Click to expand...
Interested to hear more about what you think about the missed opportunity to reinvent... what would you have liked to see or feel?
 
global_dev said:
Interested to hear more about what you think about the missed opportunity to reinvent... what would you have liked to see or feel?
Click to expand...
Putting these in spoilers so folks don’t have to read them unless they want to.

I won’t get into it too deeply but I sometimes feel like the Church (worldwide but particularly the Western Church) is often stubborn when it comes to change - which might be good when it comes to morality and ethics but I feel is very antiquated and shortsighted when it comes to what believers think it means to worship God.

I think most would say to worship means to be in a church building on a Sunday morning, singing songs, listening to Bible lessons, and getting their 30 minutes of social coffee hour after. That certainly does have its place and is important. However there is a large group who are bound and determined that this is the only way, it must happen, it is their right, and they will purposefully take actions to make sure it stays that way.

It’s simply not true in my mind. How can we be effective in our faith and reach out to our local communities when we only wish to be holed up in our own campuses. What witness is it that we have this special privilege to congregate and continue as normal, when things can’t be this way for our neighbors yet?

This last year the Church had a very clean opportunity to reinvent itself when it comes to what worship means and an opportunity to chip away at that longstanding idol of the church grounds and buildings as the center point of Christian life. Instead there was a major movement of civil disobedience and a tenacious clinging on to those ways - even though there was never a threat of losing our right to practice our faith, the government mandates were was mistakenly taken as such. I think it has tarnished the witness of the Church quite a bit. We looked more like a wealthy, spoiled brat than a humble, loving Christ-follower.

That was longer than I intended, sorry. I think that’s the basic point though.
 
I’ll keep this scrubbed. Maybe an offline discussion is more appropriate. i am not super familiar with the gradations of the “overall” concept, but i thought that was the point of many of the “houses” and their differences in activism. one of the interesting things i read recently was about the refuge that “houses” bring to people who feel outside.
 
Shave #43 (454 Open Blade Shaves) of 2021:

Gear: Blackland Vector, Proline blade, Paladin Harlequin Chief 26mm brush, CBL Hombres MB soap, homemade witch hazel/aloe mix, SV 70th AS, and Guerlain Vetiver to finish!

Friday Dad duties! Finally cleaned up the last of the leaf piles from the end of fall/beginning of winter. The county didn’t do a pile pick up like I seem to recall they normally do, so I was forced to get rid of it slowly, street side garbage can full by garbage can full (which is only picked up every other week). It’s been a nice morning though.

Superb shave this morning! Don’t have the CBL tonics so I used SV 70th after a great Hombres MB lather session. Not quite a match but definitely all “green” and not a disappointment!

Took the razor change opportunity to clean up the Henson and remove the well used Feather. Easy peazy clean up. I do see some spotting in the handle threads though and there’s some staining where the AL handle touches the TI washer on the head...both a bit concerning. There’s not much I can do about it though unfortunately. I’ll just have to keep a close eye for now.

Off to enjoy the rest of this Friday! 4 day weekend...woohoo! Have a great one all!
 
Shave #44 (454 Open Blade Shaves) of 2021:

Gear: Blackland Vector, Proline blade, SV/TSC Il Re Tasso d’Oro brush, Stirling Agar soap, homemade witch hazel/aloe mix, and Avon Deep Woods to finish!

Much needed day of rest today for everyone. Didn’t sleep as well as I’d have liked unfortunately but I did get more rest than normal. The missus and I went out together, sans kids, for a late morning coffee and walking date. Now back and taking care of some chores.

Forgot I wanted to pull out the SS again today but an excellent shave was had regardless. Agar and Deep Woods don’t match too well but they both smell great in their own way! Noontime BBS, smooth as buttah Vector shave FTW!

One piece of cool news, a church in our region contacted me about doing some pulpit fill soon. A bit nerve wracking but I hope it pans out!

Have a great Saturday all!
 
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