Hair Cuts

Okay, remember this girl? Here she is in all her late fall glory, covered with apples. Don ate some of them while he was mowing the lawn, but most were wormy so we let the deer have them.
Now check her out.

Here she is, post hair cut. A tree trimmer, experienced in fruit tree trimming (or so we hoped) came out and chopped away. He cut most of the water spout growth from the top, thinned out the middle, and more or less gave her a Dorothy Hammil cut. Like a human, there were lots of trimmings on the floor afterwards. I thought he was going to clean this up like they do at the beauty parlor. But no.
I myself got a haircut this week. Not a Dorothy Hammil, though I've had one in my life. Don got a picture of a movie star and said, "You'd look cute in this hair cut." I showed it to the girl who cuts my hair and she said "sure, no problem" and off she went. A huge pile on the floor later, I have much shorter hair, too many layers, and my hair only looks okay if I spend half an hour styling it. Fortunately, like apple trees, my hair grows fast. By spring, she will be in full flower, and my hair will be back down to grazing my shoulders.
We are leaving to drive to Boston this week. I am so thrilled. February in Michigan is cold and wet and gloomy. Boston may be no better, but seeing the smiles on my grand-daughter's face will lighten my heart. Cricket must go to the kennel for the week. Having managed to completely spoil her in the two months we've had her, I was so worried about leaving her. But this morning we stopped by the vet for a kennel cough vaccination and flea control and the women at the vet ooh-ed and aah-ed over her and picked her up and cuddled her and said, "We can't WAIT until Cricket comes next week." So. Worry over.
My mind is jumping all over the place this morning. Hard to keep thoughts in order. I had Don bring up hamburger, tomatoes, onions and peppers from the basement and I need to get the chili started. Cricket is snoring on the couch. I just finished reading "Profiles in Courage" by John F. Kennedy. At first I thought it was mis-titled. I would have called it "Profiles of Early American Politicians." But of course then no one would have read it. None of the profiles fit my definition of courage. But then later, thinking it over, I realized it's precisely what's lacking in politicians today. None of them have the courage to stand up and say what they believe in. None of them have the courage of their convictions. They just say, "Elect me. Things will get better." Uh huh. But how? What will you do? What will you not do? These are the questions that plague me because I got up at 4:30 this morning.