I was sick of shaving - this disdain lead to worse and worse shaves as I worked harder and harder to shorten the process in an effort to not allow it to encumber my life.

Sick of shaving is an understatement. Stating I hated it would not be too strong.

Wife started putting out the signals. "Wow! Did you even shave today?"

The only thing that was challenging enough to enable me to want to shave well, was a DE and then in short order a straight. That challenge and the notion that it's rather bad-assed and not performed by the majority sold me.

The wife is well pleased - shaving now takes me forever comparatively speaking, but its become a pleasure.