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One of the most enjoyable part of my recent travels was developing my new hobby, helping others embrace the mohawk. Of course you already know that mohawks, besides being an attractive and hassle-free (should you choose a short version) hair style, attract many members of the opposite/same sex, and clearly state your intention to not belong to the crowd, but yet, kinda belong to the crowd…the cool crowd, not “The Man” crowd, of course.

I cut my first mohawk in May, on a whim with borrowed materials. My friend crouched over a trashcan to catch his hair, and I used a water fire extinguisher to clean him off. All considered, it turned out great (see below). It goes without saying that shortly after receiving his new haircut, he met a girl, they fell in love, and they are flying back and forth in a long-distance relationship even now. True story.

I took with me on my travels all the needed materials to cut more mohawks: clippers and guards, sheets to protect the client and the ground, a chair, hair clips, germ-killing solution, broom and dustpan, and self-made guides so each person can choose 1 inch, 1.5 inch, 2 inch, or the ridiculous 3 inch wide ‘hawk. (I do this for free, so should you feel the need for a ‘hawk, let me know.) I made up clever signs illustrating several happy mohawk-wearers, and waited. Luckily, my selected spot was near a very social bar, filled with friends who eagerly directed curious mohawk seekers my direction. Over two days, I cut 6 mohawks, and 1 bihawk (under protest – it is NOT a mohawk!). I wish I had pictures to show you, but so far most of the pictures were taken on cameras not my own, so it’ll have to wait until I have shots of said artwork. I had two happy helpers at different times as well, which just illustrates how much fun mohawk-cutting is as a hobby.

Funnily enough, Sam was gone for all of this time, and didn’t get to see my handiwork, though several of my clients stopped by to see me later that week, shyly pleased with the many compliments they had received since changing their hairstyle. Since Sam seemed a little skeptical that I could have gotten so much experience under my belt so quickly, I set up an appointment for a friend in Colorado once we returned. His mohawk is displayed to the right, and he is the envy of all his co-workers:

Of course, once Sam got home, it was his turn.

I love my new hobby.

The lack of posts recently is because of traveling. Pictures will go up in the gallery soon, but for the time being, there are other things to tell.

Since the move, we are subleasing in a rather large apartment building, living 7 blocks from the downtown area. This is really great for walking down to restaurants, bars, groceries, etc. In fact, I’ve found a website that identifies exactly what it is I like about the places I choose to live. It’s called walkscore, and you put in your address to get a rating between 0 and 100 (with 100 being a good thing) of how closely you live to various services. It then produces a map and a list of the nearest grocery, movie theatre, hardware store, bar, dry cleaners, you get the idea. Our current score is 88, and our last place was an 82. Aaaaahhh. Quantifying what were previously unquantifiable qualities is very satisfying for engineers…

However, that’s irrelevant to this story. In our building of about 30 units, there is an open area linking the hall to the laundry room and leasing office. It’s where the mailboxes are, and there’s a bulletin board, useful things like that. The weird part is the “free” bookshelf. A bookshelf in one corner accumulates and dissipates….stuff. Sure, there are lots of very dated books and magazines that seem to stay on the shelf, but we’ve seen lamps, TVs, houseplants, what I assume are doctoral theses, and other bookshelves come and go. Sam grinningly brought home one day one of those plastic sheets that magnify whatever is behind it. (One guess as to the first thing he, and probably any boy, wanted to magnify). I topped that by bringing home a gauzy, pink curtain with screen-printed trees on it in various shades of pink.

But the truly WEIRD item found in the pile sat there for close to a week before finding an anonymous new home. A cabbage. A cabbage bigger than the average adult human head. It was bagged in a plastic grocery sack, unassumingly sitting there. Who buys a cabbage and sadly, finds that it does not meet their needs, leaving it instead in the building-wide free pile? And even more strange, who decides, “AH-HA!! Exactly what I wanted! A giant cabbage! ‘Ask, and ye shall receive!’” I just wish I could find out about the adventures this cabbage embarked upon, and am a little sad I never will.