Yesterday’s Adam update was the result of three separate drafts, the first two of which were callously cast aside by the server as it pretended to “Save” them. This loss of work doesn’t happen often, but when it does you can bet there’s some gnashing. Often I can recall more or less verbatim what I’d typed, but the monthly Adam updates are usually cobbled together from notes collected over the entire month, so sometimes things that are lost stay lost. It wasn’t until I was in bed last night that I realized I’d mentioned a haircut but there were no pictures to prove it.

Slonski tobogan, haircut.jpg

This photo was originally intended to go into the monthly update. This was taken on Haircut + 1, after the sobbing had subsided. We’ve cut his hair before, but this month we bought a pair of electric clippers to make the process more efficient. By “process” I mean “the part where I sit on his chest and try to keep his teeth clear of Magda’s face”, and by “efficient” I mean “mentally scarring”. This was the first haircut that reminded me of “Full Metal Jacket” and afterward he looked about that traumatized. His cheeks didn’t return to their normal color for a disturbingly long time and he looked so generally deloused that the photographs we took in the immediate aftermath of the shearing aren’t for public consumption.

The above picture shows him atop the elephant-themed slide at the playground in Nova Gorica’s center. This slide was the site of another great trauma a few weeks ago, when a horrible little troll of a girl was hiding under the slide and thought it would be fun to scream at Adam from the shadows (Magda assumed mental illness). It was not fun and it was some time before he would go near the slide again, so this photo represents a triumph of sorts, a testament to Adam’s resilience.

His hair is almost grown back, too.