Ever just wake up one day and realize that you've had the same goatee for 11 years? The same goatee that used to be kinda' a joke to make your friends laugh at how careless you'd become about your grooming. The one that was supposed to look a little bit like the devil and mostly like your arm-pit. And then one day you're traveling in the backseat and all you can see in the rear-view mirror is your muff of chin bush looking unruly and not-quite-awake. So I pretty much decided on the spot that the chin piece would go as soon as I returned to my luggage and supplies.



It was kind of scarey. I hadn't seen the bottom of my face for a decade. Who knew what was going on down there. My neck could have been sporting the developing stages of a premature gobble-thing.



When I first saw it, it wasn't like I instantly recognized something familiar . . .



. . . and, I had just killed my Chin Buddy.