I used to play in SRP back when we were still on Yahoo! Groups. I remember when the biggest thing going was Benny getting on TV swallowing swords.

I haven't been using any of my razors for a while. I like wearing a full beard and my wife likes me clean shaven. She usually gets about half the year and I get the other half. This last time though I wore a beard for almost 2 years.

Last time I was shaving, a year or so ago, I was using an older Gillette slim adjustable which gives me fine shaves. But I really didn't enjoy shaving the way I did when I was using a straight edge.

About a week ago I gave in and whacked off my beard. My wife was very happy and my 2 year old was a little surprised.

I also go to the gym every morning and don't really have anything that I can store the Gillette in without risking damaging the blade. So, because I really like shaving with my straight razors and the fact that I couldn't easily use me DEs I decided to break out a couple of my old razors.

I grabbed my two go-to razors from when I was shaving regularly. A Dubl-Duck satinedge spike and a round end Dovo that's only about 10 years old. Checked them both and the DD needs a trip to the hone but the Dovo came to life with just a little time on the strop.

So, after the first week of going to the gym and shaving there no one has said anything and only one person openly noticed. I doubt there will be a problem.

This evening my 2 year old woke up around 11:00 and needed a little help getting back to sleep. I put him in bed and he wanted daddy to snuggle for a little while he went to sleep. He started feeling my face in the dark and said, "scratchy." I told him it gets scratchy at night and daddy shaves in the morning. He was very glad to hear this and said "Daddy shaves."

I guess I'll not be wearing a beard for a little wile.

I decided to drop by and re-register here and I am shocked at how much the community has developed. There is a lot of absolutely beautiful restoration and outright new razor craftsmanship going on that I would never have believed when I first joined the community.

It also seems there is a lot of new info on hones etc. out there now. I will have plenty to keep me busy reading for quite a while.

And, some things never change. The value of the hanging hair test is still being debated and Lynn is still "The Man!"

It's nice to be back.