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Nurse Dave's Journal

Nice Stuff, and I was stationed there twice and loved every minute of it
 
Great shave and picture Dave!

I've been to Germany (for work), but not England. I do want to go back strictly as a tourist at some time.
 
London is a fun city. Went there as a kid. We spent two weeks in the surrounding areas. A majority of our trip was to get to Scotland to see where my mom was born. Fun times and beautiful.
Great read Dave...I have yet to do any traveling in Europe, but London is on the visit list, along with Newcastle. (HWTL!)

Love seeing the unobtanium used!
Good shave, cool trip! It’s sad, but I’ve yet to travel anywhere outside the States...one of these days I hope!
Nice Stuff, and I was stationed there twice and loved every minute of it
Great shave and picture Dave!

I've been to Germany (for work), but not England. I do want to go back strictly as a tourist at some time.
Thanks guys. For those of you that haven't been, it was super easy to get around and just riding the bus through the city felt like a museum. Very clean and so much to see in a small area. Plus, the fragrance area of Harrod's was killer!
 
Caught up on some excellent shaves, Dave! As a fellow RX brother, I will say I don't do a lot of skin stretching with my hands, but I do puff out my cheeks and use some aggressive head leans to keep things tight.

Reading about your cat reminds me a lot of one of out cats. She was our only cat, a short-hair calico, until we adopted a male medium-hair kitten when she was about 6 months old. Shortly after he arrived, maybe about 3 months in, she started puking regularly. Apparently she grooms him a lot, but also likes to eat the hair that he sheds, which can cause a plug to form in her stomach, according to the vet. Hopefully your cat stays on the mend, but if you have any further concerns a vet visit could bring you a lot of peace of mind.
We've been watching. Was a couple of days with no issues, but then this morning the noise happened again. But only when her sister when close. Then I poured some food and came running. So maybe it's just a teen phase.
 
2018 shave #134 (DE:23 SE:44 Str:64 Cart:2)

Stark 5/8
Nuavio Rossa
RasoRock Plissoft
Witch Hazel & Alum
Nivea post shave balm
Bleu de Chanel

Today is it guys. I've been very timid about getting out the Stark without more experience. But I've been very curious to see what the feel is like compared to the other straights I've tried. I got out a soap that I knew I wouldn't have to worry about performance being an issue. Here I had high hopes of super smooth strokes, and at least as nice of a shave as I can get with the SS. It was not to be. Just like the Weck and the Frameback, I felt like I was shaving without any lather at all. It didn't totally stall, but it wasn't smooth and felt like it
was tugging a lot. I got three passes accomplished, and needed a 4th with the RX just to get to DFS. There has got to be a major issue with my technique that isn't effecting the SS, but causes issues with everything else. I am actually scraping off every bit of lather and there is NO slickness left when I rinse between passes. Short of flying out to Arizona for Dave to watch me shave, I'm not sure what else to do. I'll try a few more times, but maybe this true straight shaving isn't for me.

Another bummer today. I've had a 2002 Audi S4 for about 6 years. It's always been a car with issues and according to my mechanic, one of more expensive cars to fix because everything is a PITA to get to. After it's latest issue with a small coolant leak and slow leak in a tire, I parked it in the garage to deal with later. Well later turned out to me months later and the battery was dead, dead, dead. I pushed it our and jumped it. While I was letting it idle for a while, my wife came out and said "isn't that a lot of smoke??". I looked, and sure enough there was enough smoke wafting away from the engine to make me a little worried about it turning into flames at some point. I knew it also had an oil leak that I would smell burning from time to time when I drove it, but never saw the actual smoke before. I turned it off, watched it until the smoke stopped and just signed up to donate it. It normally wouldn't be a big deal, but I went through a more than hard year just before I got that car, an once there was resolution to my situation, that car was my relief. I bought it and two days later drove down to Disneyland with my daughter to meet my parents and just be happy. It's the first car I ever had that had enough power that you could tell it what you wanted it to do and it would comply. Anyway, the headache of a costly car to fix is gone, but also a symbol of freedom from that time. Life moves on and more experiences replace the old.
 
A couple of years ago we donated to Make a Wish a car that was still salvageable but had become too much of a nuisance, a 1992 Mazda Protege. We had it for 24 years, so I guess you could say we got our money's worth.

Shave on, Dave. Best of luck (We REALLY need a thumbs up emoji!).
 
Not sure what is going on with the True SR's; it could be technique, but that would be magnified by the SS most likely. Jerry puts a great edge on his razors, so that's likely not the culprit.

Hmm...thinking food indeed...

Sorry to hear about the Audi finally giving up the ghost...hope things turn around for you Dave!
 
Bummer about the shave and car.

I know I’m heavily favoring my SS on the open blade side of things right now too. It’s jusy too consistent.

Good job for donating the car!
 
Sorry about the bad luck on the shave and the car Dave. Look at it this way...at least you smell great from the Nuavia Rossa!
 
Sucks about the car. I am actually surprised at how much get up and go my new hybrid has, obviously no where close to what you had, but let's just say no Prius is beating me off the line ROFL!
 
Sorry to hear about the car and shave. I know we always say YMMV, but I would hate to think that straights wouldn't work for you. Maybe you can make a shaving video and some of the seasoned vets could critique it.
 
Well bummer about the car and the shave. I haven't used an SS or any other shavette, but the general consensus is that shavettes are less forgiving than a straight. The edge on the Stark should have been stellar, I don't own one, yet, but his reputation precedes him. Did you strop before the shave? Could be you are ruining the edge on the strop. If you have an inferior strop that is possible, bad technique can roll an edge too. I know I ruined a couple of edges on a bad strop. Will it tree top arm hair or pass an HHT now?
 
Sorry to hear about the bad shave and the car dying. I hope you get something fun to replace the car that also makes you smile.

As someone who also had a not so good straight shave today, I feel your pain. Correct angle of the blade and stretching the skin are key to getting a good straight shave. I was trying to do both of those today, but still failed to get a good shave. Just keep at it.
 
Well bummer about the car and the shave. I haven't used an SS or any other shavette, but the general consensus is that shavettes are less forgiving than a straight. The edge on the Stark should have been stellar, I don't own one, yet, but his reputation precedes him. Did you strop before the shave? Could be you are ruining the edge on the strop. If you have an inferior strop that is possible, bad technique can roll an edge too. I know I ruined a couple of edges on a bad strop. Will it tree top arm hair or pass an HHT now?
Ruining his perfect edge is one reason I was hesitant to use it. I did strop is just a touch before use, but I was pretty dang careful. And I would assume I could be screwing up edges if not that these shaves feel the same as I'm getting with the Weck with a new blade. So I think it narrows it down to me.
 
Thank you for the comments all. We are donating to Make-a-Wish so that's a good thing. Still up in the air about what to do next. We do still have 2 cars, but the plan when we bought our SUV was for it to stay in the garage other than times when all 5 of us will be going somewhere. So then we would have a reliable car for road trips that isn't getting a lot of wear and tear otherwise. But, both our cars are close to being paid off and my wife is liking the idea of no car payments. Personally, I'm leaning to a lease. I always thought they were a waste of money, but after putting more money into repairs for the Audi than new car payments would have been, I'm liking the idea of never worrying about major issues. Anyone have experiences with leases?
 
Sunday entry:

2018 shave #135 (DE:23 SE:44 Str:65 Cart:2)

Weck w/ Personna (4)
Chiseled Face Cinnawood Boroka
RasoRock Plissoft
Witch Hazel & Alum
Nivea post shave balm
Chiseled Face Cinnawood Boroka AS

I was a little surprised to find myself wanting to jump back on the straight razor horse again, but that's what happened. And things were totally different. The 1st pass was pretty darn smooth for the most part. And the next two not bad either. Totally different than Saturday. The whole time I was shaving, I was trying to figure out what I was doing so differently. All I can think if maybe me pressure is less? Would it make sense if I was using too much pressure it would cause th
e blade to stall or feel rough? This is by far the best shave I've gotten with more of a true straight and the best I've gotten with the Weck (no guard). I did finish with a 4th pass with the RX to get to a DFS. Of course there was plenty of sting and neck soreness, but it was interesting having progress on the heels of yesterday.

Our kids are gone until this afternoon. My wife and I had dinner with friends last night. They make real Raclette with a heater brought from Switzerland, and we bring the wine. Ended the evening with Trivial Pursuit, which was hard enough for me 30 years ago, but even more so since I don't even have a shot at what used to be pop culture. But it was a good evening. This morning we headed up to Napa to get some shipments that have been waiting for a while. Had a very nice tasting where we got a ride up to the top of vineyard overlooking a lake and had a nice discussion with our host about biodiversity and the more technical aspect of their vineyard. Followed by a vertical tasting of their wine and I got my wife a crystal decanter she's had her eye for a couple of years. Much driving and kid pick-up later, we also got some take-out Persian food and headed to her parents for dinner. Ended the night at home with some custom labeled ice cream for a special Mother's Day dessert. Pretty good day over all.

 
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