I’ve been casting about for a couple of days for blog topics (this is harder than it looks). 

Since “Home is where I hang my Hair” has at least something to do with that fuzzy stuff that grows on ours and other mammals hides, I think it is pertinent to at least make mention of the extreme makeover dog grooming competition mentioned on Good Morning America the other morning:  This is my favorite from the abc news site,

and there are many others here:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/slideshow/pet-stylists-super-show-creative-grooming-competition-10866528

I have made my own attempt with my Boston Terrier, Mario.  I felt like he needed a more approachable look.  He tends to scare people sometime.  Some people ask me if he is a

Pit Bull.  So my buddy Bonnie sent me a link to this site to “test drive” his new look:

http://pedigree.com/oralcare/denture-your-dog.aspx?mId=39262545.2

Here is the duct tape outfit a girl would want if she had a super groomed dog like the one above:

Check out the Duck Tape "Stuck at Prom" Gallery: http://www.duckbrand.com/Promotions/stuck-at-prom/Gallery.aspx

Tornados dancing all around the state

 So, I’ve stepped out on the blog dance floor without a partner.  I’ve been sitting on the sidelines voyeuristically waiting, I guess, for someone to ask for this dance.  Then it hits me:  blogging is pole dancing.  No partners needed, no ones toes to trounce.. 

But you still gotta get the rhythm.  I thought I had it goin’ on becauses I love to write emails so much.  But my own favorite blogs are the ones with lots of links and other good stuff.  I’m not too much on all the little widgets yet, but if anyone has suggestions, sock it to me.  

The national weather media thought that my geographical area was important enough to warrant extreme tornado vigilance and constant weather updates all day yesterday.  Then in this morning's paper:  http://www.starnewsonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Dato=20110417&Kategori=NEWS&Lopenr=417009997&Ref=PH&pl=1  

Oakley Plantation suffered nary a scratch (nor any significant rainfall)

The squall line that approached over the weekend was well advertised since Wednesday last.  I planned my gardening around the impending doom, and today, after it has all passed, I am feeling quite smug.  I prepared for hail, and didn’t plant my tomato and pepper plants ahead of the storms.  I did however discover a source for compost material (I’ve not lived here long enough to build up a good compost).  So I spent a couple of hours in the red-bud hedge line raking out some pretty decent humis while the winds picked up and the clouds flew by.  I wish I had my camera charged and ready, and alas, I missed some excellent moody cloud pix.  (Resolve to keep camera nearby for blog visuals).   After all the weather hype, the tornadoes and hail bypassed my area, giving just a sprinkle or two of rain and some healthy wind gusts.

And today, Sunday, I wrap up the weekend with almost all my goals accomplished, including e-filing my tax returns, getting tomatoes and peppers and corn planted and last but not least, a blog entry downloaded!

 Here are some photos to prove it.

                                        Silas and Grandma Pipkin at her recent birthday

First Post

With a little too much time on my hands, I begin this blog.  To those of you who don't yet know me, let me introduce myself.  My name is Dixie, I was born in the North, raised in the North and South and am currently living in the South, specifically, Wilmington NC. 

 I am in my mid fifties and for the past 18 years or so I have been bald, either by fate or by choice.  My hair cannot get its act together.  When my hair started to leave me, I developed coin sized patches of scalp which eventually got together to give me a shino bald top.  More time passed and I developed small circles of hair within the mostly bald pate. Then as I entered my mid fifties, my head hair started to re-appear but my eyebrows and eyelashes left the premises, and the head hair today is baby fine and snow white.  I prefer the bald look to the wispy white hair look, although I usually wear a wig for the comfort of other people.  If I haven't already given you too much information, I do not have underarm hair, nor leg hair, but my pubis, well that's my business, although many men will ask me as they glance down towards my crotch "Did you loose all your hair?"  Funny, women never ask that question.  


In the course of my hair loss I have probably owned 40 or 50 wigs.  They don't last very long.  Heat frizzes them up, and in the South that can happen immediately just walking down the street.  Baking cookies and attending oyster roasts can sometimes cause even worse side effects, but fortunately I have never experienced an open head flame.  I have owned wigs of all different colors and styles, the most hideous of them a BIG copper colored long haired number which I called my Brenda Starr wig.  I had it for a pretty long time, because it was so long, there was plenty of hair to trim when the ends got frizzy.  I have a dear friend who is a hairdresser.  Every now and again I will gather up all my wigs and head over to her house where we will share a bottle or two of wine.  One after another, I will put the wigs on and Charlotte will trim them up for me.  When I leave her home, I feel smug possessing enough hair to keep me from having to visit the wig store again in the near future.  


On one such occasion when my son was still young, I visited her with 10 or 15 frizzy wigs just before we departed for our Christmas road trip.  Our route would take us first to the Tennessee mountains to see family on Christmas day, and from there we traveled to Virginia to visit a dear friend and then headed home along the Outer Banks.  

By the time we got to the Outer Banks the station wagon was loaded with Christmas presents, souvenirs, a couple of antique sewing machines and 2 duffel bags of dirty laundry.  To gain room in the car, the bag containing my freshly trimmed wigs got tossed in with the dirty laundry and I tied the duffels to the roof rack.  We had a beautiful drive along Highway 12 and decided to spend the night in Rodanthe.  But when I went to check into the hotel, I discovered that the cargo on my roof rack had been lost somewhere along the highway.  Since I had gone from wigs to wig less in just a few hours,  I skipped locating a laundromat and shaved my head slick and went to dinner Au-natural.   I remember thinking that I had lost more hair in my life than any one woman should ever have to endure!