…so, I figured that since the old Sensor handle broke after a mere twenty five years, I should check out what wood turning kits there might be for turning handles for cartridge razors – the Sensor in particular – since, y’know, wood turning is fun.

Bad idea. I fighting a severe case of Kit AD right now, there are so many razors and brush kits out there and I do NOT have the time to do much about them… nor do I find any for the Sensor.

For those who remember, I cobbled together a home made “lathe” a couple of years ago. This summer I bought myself a real one for my birthday (best presents are the one you buy for yourself) and over the last few days the bits and pieces have arrived.. the lathe itself, a chuck set, some carbide cutters, odds and ends. Lacking piles of proper blanks, I’ve been reducing two-by-fours and other pieces of scrap wood to wood dust over the last few days. Tonight I made my second attempt at a hollowed out form, from a blank I glued together from two offcuts of two-by-four. And while not beautiful or well proportioned by any stretch of the imagination, I am pleased with it.

Today is the 17th of May, Norwegian Constitution Day! Another wonderful day in a free country, devoted to celebrating how awesome it is to be lucky enough to live in freedom and relative peace.

Some people live in war zones and in terror. Some suffers from oppressive governments. Some are seeing right now how their home countries are sliding into dictatorships or anarchy. Some simply don’t know freedom as I, as we do. And that means that even as we celebrate our freedom, even as we’re remembering those who gave their lives so that we can be free, we cannot forget those who ain’t. To paraphrase Arnulf Øverland, a 20th century Norwegian poet, we cannot accept the loss of rights that don’t affect us directly.

I’m not saying everyone should run of and join the military – that would be counterproductive.
I’m not saying we should “liberate” those who lives in less free countries – as we well know it’s easier to win a war than to build peace.
But I am saying that we cannot forget those less fortunate. We cannot be so self centred that we delude ourselves into thinking that since we’re okay, everything is okay. We should help others remember, and through the means available to us work to remember and work to improve the lives of those less fortunate. It won’t be done quickly or easily, but it wont get done at all if we don’t remember that freedom don’t come for free.
Happy 17th, and enjoy your freedoms!

I just noticed that my visitor counter on my blog ticked over 75.001 unique visits, for which I’m humbled and excited over at the same time. Thank you everyone for swinging by, and happy shaving!

Today is VE day. Victory Europe day; the day the Third Reich formally surrendered to the Allies, thus ending the Second World War in Europe.

In Norway it also known as Liberation Day; the day the occupying Germans figured out that fighting to the last man in Festung Norwegen to appease a dead dictator was – to be blunt – kinda stupid, and decided to surrender to the Norwegian Resistance instead.

May 8th is also Veterans Day in Norway where we honour those who fought not just in the War with a capital W, but also those who served abroad on peace keeping and peace creating missions… and given the fact that the world seems to constantly balance on the edge of a knife, there are quite a few of those.

For those of us who still serve, and those who did their duty then and now, it can be an emotional day. Our forefathers fought – and sometimes fell – to give us our freedom. We owe it to others to do the same.