First, I want to thank again Chris R who in a comment pointed out the use of the timed release to avoid camera shake. This morning was overcast, plus I had to be at the supermarket by 7:00am, so I was taking this photo around 6:15am (not much daylight), and the lighting in the apartment is not bright. But the 2-second timed release delivered a crisp focus and without the glare lighting of a flash.
I’ve been noting shaves that result in my skin feeling particuarly soft and supple and trying to guess at the cause — The Dead Sea shaving soap was one, and the Declaration Grooming + Chatillon Lux was another. I recaled that La Toja boasts wonderful skin-conditioning properties (see this earlier post), so I brought out my La Toja shave stick (and aftershave, though I suspect any magic resides in the soap).
Good prep and took my time with lathering. Since it’s a two-day stubble on Mondays, the shave already is set to be pretty good, and I went with the excellent Fine slant — totally wonderful if you keep the handle away from your face.
Three passes — a little resistance, so it gets a new blade now — and the result is again a totally smooth, soft, and supple skin. La Toja aftershave may also have helped — it’s quite a nice aftershave — but I credit the soap (for reasons found at the link above).
I really enjoy starting the week on such a positive note, and the local supermarket is getting their routine polished. One thing that has greatly improved service, and something I hope they will maintain, is using a single queue for multiple servers. This drastically cuts average wait time — plus it is fairer (first come, first served). See, for example, this post. I’ve observed that most post offices seem to have adopted the single-queue/multiple-servers model, as have banks and airlines. For some reasons, though, supermarkets have, until now, resisted. I hope that they continue it post-pandemic.
Queuing theory is fascinating and counter-intuitive. In this post, I quote a brief piece on queuing theory. From that:
Suppose a small bank has only one teller. Customers take an average of 10 minutes to serve and they arrive at the rate of 5.8 per hour. What will the expected waiting time be? What happens if you add another teller?
We assume customer arrivals and customer service times are random (details later). With only one teller, customers will have to wait nearly five hours on average before they are served. But if you add a second teller, the average waiting time is not just cut in half; it goes down to about 3 minutes. The waiting time is reduced by a factor of 93x.
Why was the wait so long with one teller? There’s . . .
There’s more.