Walt's Corner

I’m a sucker for a nice safety razor, especially one that completely redefines the category. The Leaf is one of those razors.

For as long as I can remember, the classic safety razor has come in 2 flavors, both of which has the blade perpendicular to the stem, or handle. The blade is secured by either a butterfly enclosure that opens by twisting your handle, or the blade gets pancaked in between two portions of the head which is then squished together by the handle which holds it all together by screwing into the head.

When it comes to the underlying physics involved in these types of razors there really is no difference. The angle of your blade is offset about 90º from your handle. The skill of a baby bottom smooth (BBS) shave with these razors is knowing at what angle to hold the handle as you drag the blade down your face. Be careful! Too little of an angle and no dice. Too harsh of an angle and you have just sliced your face to shreds. The best type of these razors for me has been the Henson AL13 that I reviewed back in June of last year.

The Leaf has redesigned the safety razor from the ground up. Not only does it shift the angle of blade from that 90º, but it adds multiple blades in much the same fashion as your standard plastic disposable blade cartridge. You know, the ones that cost $20 for a pack of 4 – albeit at a fraction of the cost because it uses standard single edge safety blades. If you already have standard double edge safety blades you can easily snap them in half inside their paper sheaths before unwrapping them. Now you have 2 single edge blades that will fit the Leaf. I paid around $10 for a pack of 50 of these blades – 100 if you snap them in half.

You can choose to shave with one, two, or three blades when it comes to the Leaf. The razor seems like a solid slab of stainless steel but is comes in a variety of finishes. I always prefer chrome. Putting the blades in the Leaf is straightforward. A simple unscrewing of a knurled thumbwheel on the back will allow the different leaves of the blade holding system to turn up, revealing the spot to place the blade. There is even a small magnet that will hold the blade in place as your drop the 2nd leaf down to put your 2nd blade in, and so on. When done, it is as simple as turning the thumb screw to lock it all in place.

I do not recommend using this if you need to shave your upper lip, or for precise lines, as the blades are recessed on the sides and the large space above the top blade will prevent someone from getting a full swipe in on the upper lip. For myself who has a goatee, these shortcomings do not present a problem. In fact, Leaf suggests you use this for shaving your body, legs, and head. For facial shaving, Leaf has another version with an aggressive angle but holds only a single blade and is designed for more precise shaves. This version comes in two variations, the Twig and the Thorn. I will be trying one of those soon.

I have to say, using the Leaf on my face is exceptionally smooth and effortless. At first, I thought it must have been a wrong angle and did not shave anything. I felt like nothing happened. Upon further review, it had shaved and shaved well. I paid about $64 for the Leaf Triple Blade.

Have not watched The Six Million Dollar Man since I was a kid. It’s on Peacock streaming service so I thought I’d give it another go. Lee Majors was one of my childhood heroes. I even had his action figure. We were quite low on the economic ladder, my father bringing in $20/week salary (plus trailer was included), but he did manage to find this action figure for me at a handy discount. It was either a return or damaged product. Maybe a yard sale find? Who knows. I remember it had no box that it came in. But there it was. Nestled on my pillow upon my return from 1st grade school that day. It included none of the spare parts that was supposed to accompany the action figure. But I could look through his eye from the back of his head and roll up his fake rubber “skin” to expose the nuclear powered cy’borg mechanics underneath. Steve Austin and I had many boy-hours of fun.

I don’t remember the pilot episode specifically, so it was a pleasant surprise. Then there was the guest appearance of someone else who I have not seen really since childhood. I had to look the character up on IMDB to realize it was another character I had watched as a kid with my father – Darren McGavin as Kolchak: The Night Stalker; also available on Peacock. I guess I have a couple shows to rewatch.

$95 Million. That’s how much Apple has to pay out in the case of Siri listening in, recording, and sharing our information with advertisers from 2014 through the end of last year. After the attorneys who brought the case get their almost $30 Million cut that brings us down to around $65 Million left to split amongst the rest of us. Depending on how many file for their share, that could put up to $20 in the pockets of those of us who were used.

It was so almost guaranteed to happen that Carol and I would say random things into the other’s phone just so that advertisements would start to appear. “Oh man, why is my penis so small?” I would ask her phone. Sure enough. Penis enlargement ads would creep their way into her devices. At an exponential level compared to the usual. Good times. Definitely worth my $20.

Can you guess what my iPhone’s been named for the last few years? Wiretap.

Was a good year in reading for me. 21 books. I generally don’t designate a time during the day to read other than before going to bed. After brushing/flossing my rocks and taking my nightly meds/vitamins, I’ll nestle into my bed and read until I start to fall asleep. This usually takes about 20-30 minutes. I won’t be breaking any records for number of books read throughout the year.

In no particular order. I lie. I’m looking at my Goodreads list. That’s the order. Plus 3 more I know Goodreads didn’t include for whatever bullshit reason. Plus 3 repeat reads – the Wayward Pines Trilogy. My 4th time reading this excellent series.

• Cursed by Leigh Kenny
• The Infinity Engines: Anachronist by Andrew Hastie
• The Vile Thing We Created by Robert P. Ottone
• Close Your Eyes by J.A. Konrath
• Creep Out by Jeff Strand
• Mean Spirited by Nick Roberts
• The Excorcist’s House by Nick Roberts
• You Like It Darker by Stephen King
• The Church Beneath the Roots by Felix Blackwell
• Ragman by J.G. Faherty
• Red Inside by Bridgett Nelson
• Dead End Tunnel by Nick Roberts
• Contagion by Michael McBride
• A Short Stay in Hell by Stephen L. Peck
• Snuggling the Grotesque by Jeff Strand
• Interview with the Devil by Michael Harbron
• 25 Days by Per Jacobsen
• Dry by Per Jacobsen
• Wayward Pines Trilogy by Blake Crouch.

All great reads in my opinion. I thoroughly enjoyed every one of these books. Authors I actively follow are Stephen King, Blake Crouch, Jeff Strand, and J.A. Konrath.All the rest in this list were recommendations from the Books of Horror Facebook group.

Our most anticipated camping trip of the year is always Big Bend Ranch State Park. My favorite playground. So many trails to explore whether it is along the easily accessible outside of Big Bend Ranch or within the rugged interior.

This year we chose the interior – Vista Del Bofecillos. This is the first individual site as you begin to travers the 20-something miles of Main Park Road headed towards the Saucedo Visitor Center. Our first time at this site was 2021. This road is not for faint of heart. Hauling our small pull-behind Lance trailer over its tumultuous waterboarded surface means no more than 10 MPH and sometimes even 5 MPH resulting in taking up to 2 hours to travel the 12 miles from FM170 to the campsite.

The goal was to go the entire week without needing to refill/dump water tanks. We left with 51 gallons of water between the freshwater tank (45 gal) and water heater (6 gal). Having an on-board 60-amp DC to DC battery charger as a backup power source eliminated the need to bring our small backup generator as usual in case our 400 watts of solar panels could not meet our power needs – especially with our intention of firing up the inverter Christmas Day to run our crock pot. Turns out the panels kept us up to charge, so we never used the 60-amp DC charger.

We have 2 x 20-pound propane tanks on board plus brought an additional 2 tanks as back-up. Previous years have proven to get quite cold at night, sometimes down into the 20s. This was not one of those years. Our lowest temperature was 43. Keeping our furnace set at 65 proved to be infrequent enough use to not deplete those 2 on-board tanks. Better safe than sorry though. One year we were not able to purchase or exchange any propane in any of the cities from Marfa through Presidio and even down to Lajitas and Terlingua/Study Butte. Everyone was out of propane. Luckily, we had just enough.

Day 1 – Presidio, TX

Not wanting to leave too early but also not wanting to arrive at sunset, we stayed at Loma Paloma just West of Presidio, TX. We have headed this way many times since 2015, but this was the first time we ran into heavy traffic waiting to enter Mexico. Traffic was at a dead stop for over 7 miles. Presidio Police provided escorts along the 2-lane highway for travelers wanting to go to Presidio providing us with a police escort traveling in the wrong lane. We still spent 2 hours between waiting in that line and the slow-paced escort around the traffic. When we eventually made it to Loma Paloma, check in was a breeze and the campground host, Kevin, was eager to please and provide local information. This put us 16 miles from our final destination. One draw-back from that police escort was that it took us away from our usual gas fill-up station. That meant dropping the trailer at Loma Paloma so that we could fit into a smaller Valero gas station to fill up. The following morning, we went into town and filled up the gas tank and then stopped by the Fort Leaton welcome center to sign in to Big Bend Ranch and get our official registration tickets. Back to the campground to hook up and begin our trek into Big Bend Ranch.

Day 2 – Vista Del Bofecillos

We left Loma Paloma around 1000 and had arrived and finished setting up camp by 1230. We relaxed for the rest of the day, taking in the surrounding splendor. By end of day the battery was charged up to 100% (200ah). Full sun.

Day 3 – Biking to Rancho Viejo Trailhead

Battery was down to 89%. We rode our bikes down to Main Park Road then went up to the Rancho Viejo Trailhead, passing the campsite we stayed at in 2022, by the windmill. Nobody was there. We ditched the bikes and did a couple miles of the Rancho Viejo trail and turned back. A cairn we built on top of one of the mountains we hiked up in 2022 was still there and visible via camera zoom-in. We have a few of these scattered around the park that nobody would know about except us. Battery was 100% by 1300. End of day battery at 100%. Full sun.

Day 4 – Biking to Ojito Adentro Trailhead

Battery at 89%. Rode our bikes about 7 miles from our campsite to the Ojito Adentro Trailhead, then hiked the small 1-mile trail that takes you to the Adentro Spring. Always a beautiful hike. The spring had a little more water in it than our last time here in 2022. Along the way to the trailhead, I spotted some nice hollowed out spaces in some cliff walls that will make some nice destination hikes in a year to come. End of day battery: 100%. Full sun.

Day 5 – Day Of No Scheduled Activity

Battery at 89%. Christmas Day. No plans for today other than the big Christmas dinner to be cooked in the crock pot. Pot roast with potatoes, celery, onions, and carrots. I did not want to to leave the trailer with the inverter on and powering up the crock pot for its inaugural use. Earlier this year I swapped out our 2000-watt inverter with a 4000-watt inverter (8000-watt max) and hard wired it into the power distribution panel to power up the whole trailer with AC power. I wanted to be able to monitor it just in case. Turns out it works perfect. Inverter did not even get warm. Wiring did not get warm. With the crock pot on, the inverter was pulling about 10 amps from the battery before the sun was up where it provided meaningful light for the solar panels on the roof. By noon, the panels were providing all the power for the crock pot and even charging the battery with 3-4 amps. End of day battery: 84%. Full sun.

Day 6 – Hike to the cliff of the plateau

Battery at 69%. Coldest night by far, down to 43 degrees. Previous nights’ lows were in the 50s. There is this 3-mile trail from our campsite to the cliff of our plateau that we are camped on. Reaching this cliff rewards you with a splendid view of FM170 near Redford, TX. First cloudy day we have experienced too. Entire hike is a little over 6 miles round trip. We enjoy the last sunset in Big Bend Ranch that we will see this year. End of day battery: 84%.

Day 7 – Back home

Big Bend Ranch State Park is once again in our rearview mirror. 2 hours coming down the mountain and a pleasant, incident free drive home. Now to choose which picture I will be using to commemorate this year’s trip on a Zippo.