It followed me home from Florida.  I wasn’t sure what to think of it at first, but it grew on me.  After a week or so, I was sure that it would go away, but I wasn’t quite ready to say goodbye.  And it gave me a bit of a warm feeling in the chill of winter.

But then it started itching . . .

I have never grown a beard – honestly, I never could grow a full one because I don’t have any sideburns.  I always envied my brother a bit – Blake had a full beard when he was in college.  I still remember when he got his first job and had to take off everything but the moustache – it was the first time Lisa (then his fiancee – now his wife of almost 27 years) had seen him clean-shaven.

I let mine grow out for a little over a week two years ago when Ryan and I were in Florida, but when it started to itch I cut it off.  You could barely see it then, but I got the lighting in the kitchen just right and had Ryan take a picture of me with Zoe.  This time, I decided to stick it out – mostly because I assumed it would come in almost completely white.  And it did.

If you just heard a gasp, that was probably my parents – they don’t know about this yet, and will discover my whiskers as they read the blog.

I played cards with some childhood friends on Sunday evening, and Dave Blair made a comment that was pretty close to what I was already thinking – he said that if what’s coming out of my chin is whiter than what’s coming out of my head, it probably isn’t time to grow one yet.  Dave would know – his comes out white on both ends.

So it’s going away soon – probably before the Indianapolis show starts this weekend.  I might keep it through setup on Friday, but I doubt that it will make it into the weekend. 

And it might just get cut off tonight – I don’t need to keep anything that adds ten years to my appearance.  But if I could have grown one 30 years ago, things might have been different . . .